


Somewhere Only We Know

by tartanroyaltea



Series: The Ties that Bind [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bucky Barnes Feels, Darcy Lewis-centric, F/M, Multiple Dimensions, Not Canon Compliant, Road Trips, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2019-08-24 14:17:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16641804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tartanroyaltea/pseuds/tartanroyaltea
Summary: After her wild jaunt to another dimension, Darcy Lewis is back where she belongs.But she can't shake the idea that her soulmate is in the world she has just left behind.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Please read the prequel to this fic, _A Dream (That I Wanna Belong In)_ before delving into this one. You'll be very confused, otherwise.**

Darcy Lewis felt weird.

Everything felt off- her mind, her body, her soul.

She knew that she should feel relieved. After several months in a confusing parallel universe where every human being had an animal companion called a ‘daemon’, Darcy was finally back where she belonged. A world where people had silver words on their forearm from birth; words that their soulmate would say to them when they first met.

A world where no one had a ‘daemon’.

So why did she feel weird?

She didn’t think it was her job. Certainly, it had been tricky to navigate the many facets of her new role without divulging to Hill that she wasn’t actually the Darcy who had been working at the facility so efficiently for the past few months, but she had figured it out quickly enough.

The need to keep her inter-dimensional vacation on the down-low had been impressed upon her by none other than legendary Howling Commando Bucky Barnes, actual billionaire Tony Stark, and Dr Jane Foster, youngest ever winner of the Nobel Prize for Scientific Discovery…in this world, at least.

It had been quite the trio of impressive personages to find standing over her with expressions of concern as she crash landed back in her own dimension.

Stark and Foster had been buzzing with success, but Barnes’ eyes had been bloodshot red, his nose and cheeks flushed pink with recent tears. It was confusing, to say the least.

After helping her into a reasonably comfortable chair, Stark and Foster had bombarded her with questions about ‘the other side’. As she answered, Darcy couldn’t help but muse that it was so weird to be talking to _this_ Dr Foster and _this_ Tony Stark. Sure, she had heard about them over the years (Stark especially), but the first time she had met them, well…they’d been from another dimension. So strange.

The Jane Foster of this world was more focussed than the scatter-brained physicist that Darcy had spent several weeks cleaning up after. This Tony Stark had a lightness to his eyes that the Stark from the daemon world didn’t- that Tony Stark was angry and guilty and being pulled in all directions by the governments of the world. The Sokovia Accords had absolutely melted Darcy’s mind. How could politicians lock up the people who had done nothing but save the world from Big Bads for years? Did they _want_ to be enslaved by aliens, or psychotic robots?

Throughout her impromptu grilling by the Science Squad, Bucky Barnes had watched proceedings with crossed arms and a shuttered expression. She had no idea what his deal was, but she didn’t think he was a scientist.

Darcy had always been determinedly curious; her Mom had said it was one of her worst _and_ best traits.

So when Stark and Foster finally decided to release her back into the wilds of the Avengers’ HQ –after extracting numerous promises about keeping hush-hush on her adventure- Darcy had loitered around outside the labs until Bucky Barnes came by.

Which he duly did, less than an hour later. His eyes were dry, and his expression blank, but he still looked emotionally wrung out.

“Why were you in there?”  She asked, not surprised that Barnes didn’t so much as flinch. He came to a halt and looked at her, something like relief on his face.

_Curiouser and curiouser._

He tilted his head as he surveyed her, which gave her plenty of time to note that he was unfairly good looking.

“I was…seeing someone off,” he said finally, each word measured on his tongue. His eyes flickered almost imperceptibly to her right arm.

Darcy felt thrown off kilter for all of three seconds before it clicked.

“You mean…someone like _me,”_ she whispered, pointing at her sternum for emphasis.

Barnes’ cool grey eyes stayed locked on her face as he nodded.

“Were you… Was she…?” Darcy barely knew what she was asking, but her gaze drifted unconsciously to Barnes’ bare forearm, noting the scrawling words of quicksilver.

_Then I promise I’ll only call you James if you’re in trouble._

“Holy shit.” That was _her_ handwriting, but she’d never said those words before.

The ‘other’ Darcy was Bucky Barnes’ soulmate.

Holy shit.

(That lucky bitch.)

“Yeah. Holy shit is about right,” Barnes agreed, with a wry smile that only enhanced his pretty face.

“How? How did…just _what?_ ”

That got an actual chuckle out of Barnes.

“I know. It’s…something,” he admitted, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Darcy’s mind was still trying to catch up to the implication that the other ‘her’ had come to this dimension and met her soulmate…who just so happened to be Bucky Barnes. It was borderline unbelievable.

Barnes shifted, a little uncomfortably. “Listen, I know you probably got a lot of questions, but Stark and Foster are right- this needs to stay secret. We’re the only ones who know,” he said, voice low.

Darcy nodded.

“I can show you your office and fill you in on some of the work that…uh, _Darce_ , was doing before you…came back,” he added. If Darcy hadn’t been so baffled, she would’ve laughed at his careful phrasing. It was hard speaking of multiple Darcys.

“Yeah. That’d be great. Thanks,” she replied, sounding a little less friendly than she’d intended. She felt distinctly off balance. “Um, I’m gonna go and sleep this off…” She winced. “Do you know where…?”

A tendon in Bucky’s jaw flickered, but he managed a smile. “Sure. I’ll walk you over.”

As she followed him through the labyrinthine hallways, Darcy noted his hands clenching and unclenching. Suddenly she felt guilty for agreeing to let him show her around. She remembered that he’d been crying when she arrived.

It was clear that he missed his soulmate already.

Darcy sighed inwardly. Soulmates were nothing but pain- she’d known that since the age of nineteen when her Dad crumbled after the death of her Mom. They had been high school sweethearts, said their soulwords in Freshman year, and that was it until the day Darcy’s Mom died in the crash.

Soulmates were all fun and games until you had to learn to live without yours.

Barnes pointed out the canteen, as well as Darcy’s office and the office of her boss, Hill. She did her best to memorise where they were, but every hallway looked pretty much the same in the dim light of early morning.

Barnes hadn’t been too chatty on their little tour, and by the time they made it around to Darcy’s room, he looked completely wrecked.

“Thanks for helping me,” Darcy said lamely, scanning her thumb into the biometric system beneath her door handle. Thankfully, it worked. That would’ve been a tricky thing to explain to the security department.

_‘Ah yes, I know I’ve had access for the past month, but my fingerprints just randomly changed overnight. Weird, right?’_

Barnes ducked his head. “Welcome. I’ll… see you around.”

Darcy stood and watched as he walked away, before heading into her tiny room and locking the door with a sigh of relief. Some kind soul had delivered the boxes of her stuff, and they were neatly lined up against her bedroom wall.

After taking care of necessities in the bathroom Darcy tugged off her clothes as she fell into bed.

She was bone tired, and she had a shit tonne of stuff to deal with the next day.

_That’s tomorrow’s problem,_ she reminded herself as she went under.

* * *

 

Darcy’s first few weeks back in ‘soulmate land’ (as she’d taken to calling it in her own head) went more smoothly than she had anticipated. After a bumpy few days in which she floundered in her new role, Darcy finally began to learn the ropes and impress Agent Hill.

The job was exactly what Darcy had dreamed of for years, and her co-workers were surprisingly laid back and easy to get on with. She knew that she should be practically giddy with just how well everything was going…but she wasn’t.

She was…twitchy. Restless. Easily agitated, and, dare she even think it, _bored._

She was working with the Avengers and she was _bored._

Not in a ‘I need more excitement in my life’ sort of way, but more of an all-encompassing ennui that nothing seemed to cure.  Not pints of fancy ice cream. Not _Friends_ marathons on her days off. Not even a luxurious spa day in a local, swanky-as-hell hotel. Nada.

When she reluctantly made an appointment with the facility’s shrink, he immediately produced pamphlets on depression, and suggested they set up a weekly session.

Dr Phillips was a nice man, so Darcy felt a little guilty when she dumped the pamphlets and cancelled any and all future therapy sessions.

Why did she do that? Because one of the first things that Phillips told her was that therapy was a place where she could be completely honest…and Darcy knew that wasn’t true, in her case.

She hadn’t come across Stark or Foster much in her first few weeks back. They stuck to the labs in the south end of the building, and Darcy moved between her office, the canteen, and various surveillance rooms, all in the northern block. At one point Dr Foster summoned her to the lab, and the diminutive scientist was short and to the point. Darcy got the feeling that Foster didn’t have much bedside manner, so she didn’t take it personally. Beyond asking if Darcy had felt any after effects of the ‘travel’, and reminding her to keep quiet about the whole thing, Foster seemed satisfied and dismissed her.

And that was that.

It seemed that Darcy’s inter-dimensional adventures were over, and she just needed to settle into her own life again.

How could that be so difficult?

* * *

 

The year paced on, and Darcy was suddenly hearing ‘Winter is coming’ jokes everywhere she turned in the facility. Her co-workers really were dorks, but sadly, they were right. She woke up one October morning to see frost on the grass and knew that she had to accept the inevitable- it was about to get cold as balls.

Still, on clear mornings she made a point of getting a coffee to go from the canteen and wandering about outside for a while. The problem with the Avengers’ facility was that it sort of sucked you in- there were few reasons to go outside, and at this time of year, plenty of reasons to stay indoors where the state-of-the-art SI air con was pumping out pleasantly warm air all day.

After a weekend that involved a frustrating lack of sleep and a whole heap of boredom, Darcy was tempted to give up her morning ritual. It was a pretty lousy morning- cold and overcast with a nice damp mist to round it all off, but Darcy’s head was hurting from being cooped up indoors for so long that she decided she didn’t care. She grabbed her cosy parka, pulled up the furry hood, and put on her cutest mittens.

She wandered around the perimeter, sipping casually at her heavenly latte and keeping an eye out for any squirrels scampering among the trees at the edge of the compound. She knew that they were technically vermin, but she thought their fluffy tails and little paws were pretty darn cute.

She came to an abrupt stop as she turned a corner and saw that she wasn’t the only person out for a bit of fresh air.

Bucky Barnes was perched on a wooden bench, his hair hiding part of his profile, but not enough to conceal the redness of his nose and cheeks.

“Oh. Um…hi.” Darcy discreetly rolled her eyes at her own inability to form a coherent sentence. She hadn’t seen Bucky in a long time, save for mission surveillance, and the fact that anyone else was outside on this dreary morning had surprised her.

Bucky cleared his throat, glancing up at her face and then quickly looking at the ground.

“Hi. How are you?” he asked, his voice a little raw. Darcy suspected that the redness on his skin had nothing to do with the temperature. She knew that super-soldiers ran hot- literally and figuratively.

“I’m doing okay, thanks. Work is keeping me busy,” she replied, gratefully sitting down on the bench when Bucky gestured for her to join him. “What about you?”

Bucky laughed, but it was without humour. “Been better,” he admitted, gazing out at the dark forest.

“Oh. Sorry.” Darcy didn’t really know what to say.

Bucky shrugged. “Been worse, too. So I shouldn’t complain.”

Darcy laughed lightly, unsure as to how to respond to the casual reference to his awful past. “Well, I’m an accomplished complainer, myself. So if you want to vent, go ahead,” she said, waving a mittened hand between them.

Bucky shrugged, but didn’t say anything. Darcy wasn’t offended. She let the silence settle between them, sipping at her coffee and watching the sun make valiant attempts to break through the heavy cloud cover.

After about ten minutes, and with absolutely no preamble, Bucky  suddenly said: “I miss her.”

Something twisted in Darcy’s gut at the softness of his declaration.

“Am I making it worse?” she asked, unable to resist.

Bucky glanced at her, calculating, then shook his head.

“No. It’s…separate. I know it sounds strange, ‘cause you look like her, but I don’t think of you as being…her.”

“Fair enough,” Darcy conceded.

“I feel like part of me is missing…a really important part. Like…I’m swimming through this fog in my head and it’s just never ending,” he continued with a heavy exhale. His metal fingers were pulling at a small tear on the knee of his jeans.

Darcy considered for a moment. “And you have no interest in the things that used to make you happy, right?”

Bucky looked at her from the corner of his eyes. “Yeah.”

Darcy nodded. She got it. At least, she thought she did.

“I kinda feel the same. Since I got back, y’know? I just feel all…wrong,” she admitted, laughing lightly at her own inability to properly express herself.

Bucky nodded slowly, and they lapsed back into a brief silence.

“You didn’t meet your soulmate there, did you?” He asked suddenly, voice halting as he broached the taboo of discussing soulmates.

“No, I didn’t.”

“Huh.”

Darcy jumped slightly. “You’re not suggesting…no. No way.”

Bucky looked guilty. “Sorry. It’s just…it sounds like you feel the way I do, and, well-” He stopped at the expression on her face. “Look, forget I said anything.”

But she couldn’t, because Bucky’s words had just fallen like little jigsaw pieces in her mind, finally completing the confused picture she’d been staring at for months.

She felt at a loss because she _had_ lost something. The chance to meet her soulmate.

It really was too much of a revelation for 9am on a Tuesday.

Bucky, perhaps realising that he’d stumbled across a landmine, made small talk for the next fifteen minutes while Darcy’s mind percolated.

When she eventually snapped out of it and trotted to her office, she wasn’t surprised to see a fleeting look of relief cross his face as he waved at her.

* * *

 

She didn’t know how she knew _something was up_ , but Darcy felt it in her bones.

Something was up.

The first clue was the small series of firework-like explosions which emitted from the science end of the complex one Sunday afternoon. The personnel onsite barely flinched as they carried out the required safety evacuation. Any questions as to what had happened were largely answered when a soot-covered Tony Stark and Jane Foster emerged from the building, both looking tired yet triumphant. Bizarrely, Bucky trailed out after them, smears of black soot all over his beaming face.

The second clue was the mysterious case of Bucky Barnes’ new haircut, which had many a SI employee gawking in the hallways as his sharp jawline and killer cheekbones were unleashed for all to see and admire. Darcy thought it made him look very much like circa 1940s Sergeant James Barnes, but the modern clothes and ever-present scruff gave it a fresh spin. Boy looked _fine._

The third clue-

Well, there wasn’t third clue. Because the first two clues were enough to have Darcy stomping up to Bucky one morning and asking what the hell was going on.

“What do you mean?” he asked, startled.

Okay, so maybe ambushing him as he came out of the locker room wasn’t particularly polite, but whatever. Darcy needed answers.

“What was with the explosion yesterday?” Darcy followed him as he began edging towards the gym’s exit.

“Uh…” His eyes flickered around, clearly looking for a way out.

Before he pulled some sort of ninja-assassin move and disappeared in a puff of smoke, Darcy cut right to the chase. “Bucky, if this has something to do with… _elsewhere_ , then I have a right to know. You’re not the only one who’s been affected by this,” she said, her voice more pleading than she had intended.

Bucky grimaced, sighing. “You’re right.” His expression sharpened, suddenly wary. “Let’s go talk to Jane.”

Darcy blinked in surprise. Surely it couldn’t be that easy?

* * *

 

It wasn’t that easy.

“I can’t just _send_ you back, Darcy. We’re gambling as it is by trying to send Bucky to the other dimension, but he at least has a tether to give us some kind of stabilisation!” Jane’s voice was strained with tiredness. The dark rings under her eyes and the scruffy state of her hair spoke of days without proper sleep.

“What do you mean, a tether?”

Jane huffed out a breath.

“Darce gave this to me before she left. It’s hers, and it’s from her world,” Bucky explained patiently, hooking a metal finger into the neckline of his shirt and drawing out a delicate chain with a key-shaped pendant.

Darcy bit her lip. “Oh.” All she had from the other dimension were the clothes she’d worn for the journey back.

Jane confirmed that they wouldn’t be enough. “It has to be something stronger. The only reason we can even get close to dropping Bucky in the right place is because of the soulbond he and…the other Darcy share. The necklace is an anchor for the interdimensional warping. Without it, you could end up spinning in the aether for ever more.”

Darcy tried to control her fraying emotions. “Well I don’t _have_ a soul-bond anchor thingy because I haven’t _met_ my soulmate, and I’m pretty sure they’re in the dimension I just got back from so what the hell am I supposed to do?” Her voice was almost a shout by the time she’d finished, hot angry tears choking her.

Bucky and Jane shared a long, loaded glance that did nothing to calm Darcy’s ire.

“You know what? Forget it. I’m sorry I bothered you,” she muttered, wiping at her face  and hurrying from the lab. She really didn’t know Jane and Bucky well enough to be demanding things of them and then yelling like a child when they told her ‘no’.

Besides, she didn’t need to go back to the other dimension. She had absolutely no proof that her soulmate was even there, other than her vague sense of malaise for the past few months.

Soulmates were trouble. She was better off not finding hers at all.

Yeah.

It was fine.

She’d be fine.

Eventually.

* * *

 

She didn’t hear anything more from Bucky or Jane for a couple of weeks. Bucky was conspicuously absent from any of the team’s missions, but when Darcy asked Steve about it the corners of his eyes tightened in a way that told her she ought to drop it, so she did.

The knock on her door one evening took her by surprise. Fond though she was of her work colleagues, she discouraged them from inviting her anywhere on her days off. Alone time was important to her, and they seemed to respect it.

Darcy huffed as she set down her book. She really hoped it wasn’t someone urgently needing a shift covered, because she was too tired to do it and too weak to say ‘no’.

“What-oh. Bucky. Hi.”

He smiled at her confusion, and she vaguely noted how good he looked: light and almost carefree, if one with a life like his can ever be that way.

“Hey. Can we talk?”

Apparently ‘we’ meant the entire gang: Jane Foster and Tony Stark were awaiting them in the lab.

“Oh, good. You found her,” Jane said, peering at Darcy over the screen of her laptop. The tiny doctor looked even more frazzled than usual. “We have something to tell you-”

“Wait. Why are we telling her?” Stark interjected, taking a disgustingly large bite from the apple in his grubby hand.

“Because this affects her, too,” Bucky replied calmly, resting his hip against a nearby desk.

Darcy was starting to lose her patience. “What’s going on?”

Jane looked to Bucky, who smiled. “I got to see her.”

Darcy blinked. “Who?”

“The _other_ Darcy,” Bucky explained, looking fondly exasperated by her cluelessness.

Her jaw dropped. “What? Are…are you serious?”

He nodded. “Yep. Jane figured it out. I was in the other dimension for a couple of weeks, I managed to get in touch with Darce and she came to see me.”

“And do all sorts of kinky shit,” Tony added, waggling his eyebrows.

From the rapid blush on Bucky’s cheeks, it was pretty obvious that Stark was spot on, if not entirely inappropriate.

“That’s, uh…great. Congratulations,” Darcy said to both Bucky and Jane, the words tripping out slowly as her mind ticked along what this meant.  “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because now that we’ve done this once, successfully, there’s a chance that we _may_ be able to start working on how to get _you_ there,” Jane explained, almost quivering with excitement.

Darcy looked to Bucky uncertainly. “I don’t understand. You said you needed an ‘anchor’ or something, and I don’t have one.”

“We think we can get around that, with a little help,” Stark said, tossing his apple core at the trashcan. It hit the rim and rolled several feet across the floor, leaving a sticky trail. “ _Nuts,_ ” he muttered, stooping to pick it up when Jane glared at him.

“A little help?” Darcy repeated, trying to ignore the feeling of the combined excitement and terror currently whirling through her entire body.

“A little _magical_ help.”

Darcy frowned. “Wanda?” She’d monitored the Scarlet Witch a few times so she knew about some of the extraordinary things that the young mutant was capable of.

Jane turned to her. “No. Thor.”

Darcy had spoken to Thor on occasion when she came across him in the facility. He was big and loud and a genuine sweetheart, but she saw no reason why he’d feel like doing her such a big favour.

“Thor can get me an anchor?”

“His mother, Frigga, is a very talented sorceress. I spoke to Thor about it and he thinks he can get her on board.”

Darcy felt overwhelmed. Two gods, a Nobel-prize winning scientist and Tony Stark were all going out of their way to help _her._

“Why?” she asked softly. Bucky and Stark looked askance at her muttering. “Why are you all doing this? I hardly know you,” she said, her voice stronger.

“Granted, I ain’t doing much to help you, but I know how tough it is to be whole dimensions away from your soulmate, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” Bucky replied, smiling sympathetically at her.

Darcy looked at Jane. “Honestly, the challenges behind inter-dimensional travel are even worse than inter-world. But I love a challenge,” the doctor replied.

“I like making cool machines,” Tony said, “Pretty sure Point Break is getting his mom in on the scheme because he’s just a good guy who likes seeing people happy,” he added, grimacing as if to emphasise that he was _not_ one of the squishy-huggy people.

They all stared at Darcy expectantly. “Okay. I guess that answers that.” She felt a bit ashamed of herself. They didn’t have to lift a damn finger to help her out with her drama, but they were. “Thank you.”

Bucky and Jane smiled.

“Don’t mention it,” Stark warned, pointing a screwdriver at her. “Seriously, don’t. I’ll fire you if you start spreading nonsense about me being nice.”

Darcy clasped her hands together to stop them from shaking; her palms were sweaty, but she was too pumped to be grossed out by it.

“So…when is this happening?”

“Thor is in Asgard now, talking to Frigga. I’m hoping he’ll be back in a couple of days with a solution,” Jane replied, distractedly tapping at her laptop again.

Darcy took that as her cue to go, and left with a wave and a smile.

It was only when she caught herself almost _skipping_ back to her room that she realised just how desperately she had wanted this shot.

* * *

 

The whole concept of Thor, the actual God of Thunder, procuring a magical potion from his goddess mother was just a bit too much for Darcy to wrap her simple little mind around, despite her own inter-dimensional travels.

So when Jane summoned her to the lab a week later, Darcy did a double-take when she saw Thor standing next to his pint-sized genius of a wife.

“Um, hi. Jane. Thor.”

Jane nodded absently, plugging away at her computer. Thor flashed that wide grin.

“Darcy, how are you this fine day?”

It was pissing with rain outside, but Darcy didn’t want to nitpick. Besides, heavy rain might equal a ‘fine day’ to a god who specializes in storms.

“I’m good thanks. You?”

“Yes, I am quite well. Of course, any opportunity to be by my beloved when she is working-”

“Shhh!” Jane hissed irritably, waving at her husband as if she were swatting a fly.

Darcy suppressed a grin, but judging by the twinkle of amusement in Thor’s eyes, he caught it.

“Darcy, why don’t we sit over here,” he suggested, regally guiding her to the couches tucked in the corner of the lab.

“Where’s Tony?” she asked, fidgeting with the upholstery on the arm of the couch just so she had something to occupy herself with. Thor was a nice guy, but he was still pretty overwhelming and intimidating, even if he didn’t mean to be. Darcy had noticed that when he spoke to you, he had a knack of focussing on you so intently that it was hard not to feel self-conscious.

“I believe that he is overseeing the rebuilding of his home in Malibu.”

Darcy nodded. She remembered watching the news broadcast when Stark’s incredible mansion was basically blown to kingdom come by the Mandarin a few years back.

She also remembered seeing Stark hand out his address to the world media and then challenge the Mandarin to a show down on live TV about thirty minutes before the bombing; that broadcast had certainly made an impression on her that she hadn’t been able to shake even as she had gotten to know her employer a bit better in recent weeks.

Look up ‘impulsive’ in any dictionary, and there’ll be a picture of Tony Stark.

“Awesome. So, what about you? What have you been up to?” It had been a quiet couple of weeks on the mission front, which Darcy was slightly disheartened by. She felt kind of terrible for wishing that the world would face more Avengers-worthy disasters just to keep her restless mind occupied.

Thor smiled. “I have been in Asgard, speaking to my mother on your behalf.”

Darcy was fairly sure that the lab’s security footage had just captured the cartoonish image of her jaw dropping. “Seriously?”

Thor laughed, little crinkles appearing at the edges of his eyes. “Yes, _seriously_. Did my Jane not tell you this?”

“Well, yeah. She did…it’s just that…I can’t believe you’re going to so much trouble for me. We hardly know each other,” she admitted, fiddling with a ripped patch on her jeans.

“It was no trouble,” Thor assured her, “And I feel that I know you quite well, despite the infrequency of our conversations. You are held in high esteem by all of the Avengers. No mean feat, I assure you. We rarely agree on anything,” he added, a glimmer of mischief sparking in his blue eyes as Darcy laughed.

“So…what did your mother say, exactly?” Darcy asked, almost shy about it. She glanced over at Jane, who was clearly still ‘in the zone.’

Thor surveyed her for a moment. “It is no small thing you ask.”

Darcy winced. She knew that. She knew that _big time._

“In order to achieve what you wish, my mother’s magic must be capable of connecting you to another dimension, with very little guidance as to where exactly you need to be. Even with the research my Jane has conducted with James and his soulmate…well, it is a complex matter.”

Darcy bit her lip, holding back the desperate cry that was trying to break free. This was it: he was going to tell her that she was asking too much; that she was just a mortal going through a rough patch in her hilariously short life; that it wasn’t possible.

“Fortunately, my mother is one of the most powerful _volvas_ in history, and she is imbued with a kindness that few beings can even fathom,” Thor said, beginning to smile, “Quite apart from these attributes, my mother has a hunger for knowledge that I have never seen rivalled, not even by my father. She has been fascinated by your story for some time, and she wishes to aid its progress.”

Darcy blinked. “My story?”

“Of course. The Norns weave the fates of all beings, in all worlds, in all dimensions. My mother is privileged to enjoy some access to their weavings, and she tells me that your life tapestry is…very unusual.”

Darcy belatedly realised that this whole thing was really getting beyond the remits of what she had thought she was getting involved in.

_The Norns?_ The Norns had woven her life tapestry and it was _interesting_ to Frigga? A goddess-queen-witch who presumably had access to tapestries documenting the lives of millions, perhaps _billions_ of people?

Yikes.

That couldn’t mean anything good, could it?

Perhaps noticing Darcy’s mounting terror, Thor cut to the chase, withdrawing a small vial of shimmering purple liquid from his breast pocket. “My mother has provided a potion that will allow you to arrive where your soulmate resides in the other dimension."

“Oh my God. Wow…I don’t really know what to say,” she admitted, “Thank you for doing this.”

“It is my pleasure. I must warn you: my mother’s magic will only last for two weeks. My Jane says that any longer is a risk.”

“For now,” Jane chimed in.

Darcy nodded slowly. “So I’ll have two weeks over there?” It didn’t sound like long at all.

“Yes.”

“What if I don’t find them in time?” she asked, panicked. The thought of wandering through a (largely) unknown dimension in search of her soulmate suddenly didn’t sound half as appealing or romantic as she had previously thought.

Thor slapped his own forehead. Darcy had never seen anyone do that in real life, only movies or cartoons. “Darcy, I was foolish not to mention…my mother has incorporated a locator spell. You will arrive mere meters from your soulmate.”

Okay, that sounded much better…but what if she landed on a busy city street? What if she missed her soulmate by some freakish accident? Did time even run the same there as it did here?

_Breathe, just breathe. It’s all going to be fine. You have magic and science on your side._

“My mother also asked me to give you this. It will help you to keep track of your time there,” Thor added, pulling a retro Casio watch from his pocket.

Darcy took it from him, noting that the digital face showed 00:00:00. She figured it would kick into gear when she landed in the other dimension.

Jane looked at her expectantly, so she strapped the watch onto her wrist.

“Uh, are we doing this now?”

“Yep. I have everything ready, and Frigga said that the potion would be most effective at the full moon, which is tonight.”

Darcy chewed on her lip, peering at the little vial. Everything seemed horribly rushed, in spite of the fact that she had been waiting for weeks to get this opportunity. “What about my job?”

Thor laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I will handle Agent Hill. Do not concern yourself.”

“What about…should I bring some stuff with me?” Darcy hardly even knew what she was asking. What would she bring? A change of clothes? Her phone, assuming it even worked in another dimension?

Jane shook her head. “You can only take what you have on you. I’m still trying to figure how to transport extra items.”

“Okay, so we’re still using your machine?” Darcy had assumed Frigga’s magic was doing all the work.

“Yes. Frigga’s potion helps us situate you in the correct dimension, close to your soulmate. Her magic is acting as your anchor.”

That made sense…sort of. Darcy figured the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ didn’t really matter all that much. It was all light years ahead of her understanding. Jane had managed to retrieve her from the daemon dimension before (with a little help from the other dimensional Jane, but still) so Darcy trusted that she knew what she was doing.

“Okay,” she took a deep breath, “I’m ready when you are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like it's _very_ obvious that I was eager to get onto the main body of the fic, but hopefully this doesn't seem too rushed :) 
> 
> I can't believe it's almost 7 months since I posted the last chapter of _A Dream (That I Wanna Belong In)_! I really hadn't intended for this fic to take so long, but in a shocking turn of events we had an amazing summer in my little northern corner of the UK, and I spent a lot of time doing fun stuff like going to the beach and sunbathing...fic-writing and thesis work really took a backseat. Oops.
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you think! I can't wait to share the rest :)


	2. Chapter 2

~ **Day One~**

* * *

 

Darcy felt as though she was spinning for a long time, but just as she was about to start panicking, she landed with a heavy thud. Someone- a man- made a quiet grunt of pain as she shifted, trying to extricate herself from him.

Wherever she had landed was gloomy and very…grey. She thanked Thor’s Mom that her glasses hadn’t been broken in transit because she hadn’t exactly been able to pack a spare pair.

Looking around, it was clear she was in some kind of warehouse. And she wasn’t alone.

In addition to the man she’d all but landed on, Darcy noted another figure lurking by the large entry way, and - more importantly- the enormous male lion standing just ten feet away and watching her with keen golden eyes.

She’d bet her spleen that the lion was a daemon.

Frigga’s magic had worked.

She wanted to jump up and cheer, but she was slightly winded from her crash-landing, and she didn’t want to look like a total nut in front of the two men watching her.

She peered at them through her eyelashes. The fair-haired guy looked kind of familiar…

“Captain America?” she asked, her voice strained. He wasn’t clean-shaven like the Steve Rogers she had seen around her work, and his hair was slightly greasy and long enough to tuck behind his ears, but he still had that superhero look to him.

The man chuckled, running a hand through his hair self-consciously like he could sense her judgement. “Um. Sort of. Right now, I’m just Steve, Steve Rogers.”

He was adorable. “Hi just Steve, Steve Rogers. I’m Darcy…Lewis.”

A faint _swoosh_ of shifting fabric drew Darcy’s attention to the other man in the room. He was as big and built as Cap…

And she was 99.9% sure that he was Bucky Barnes.

“Shit,” she muttered. Steve’s eyebrows rose and his companion’s jaw tightened, pale eyes flashing.

“Are you CIA? FBI? One of Ross’s?” The Bucky Barnes lookalike asked gruffly, his handgun pointed at her.

Darcy’s mouth dropped open as she felt a bizarre combination of joy and terror swoop low in her stomach at his words. Her pulse thundered in her ears.

She knew those words. She’d been reading those exact words off her arm for twenty-six years, wondering who would say them.

Of course the Bucky Barnes of this dimension was her soulmate. _Of course he was._

The laughter bubbled up in her throat like vomit, spilling forth as she doubled over, arms wrapping around her own belly for comfort.

“Buck, will ya put the gun away?” She heard Steve Rogers ask with frustration. The other man grumbled lowly, but a faint click told her he’d at least put the safety on, even if he hadn’t holstered it.

“Darcy? It’s okay. You’re okay…I think you’re in shock,” Rogers said, his voice pitched to sooth. He didn’t try to touch her, which Darcy appreciated.

She rubbed her hands over her face, surprised to find her skin was wet. She hadn’t realised that her laughter had morphed into tears, but it certainly explained why Cap sounded so concerned. He really was a good guy, worrying about some chick he’d met only two minutes beforehand when she magically fell in his lap.

Too bad _he_ wasn’t her soulmate.

That honour belonged to grumpy cat himself, whom she was pleased to note had holstered his gun, but who was sadly still regarding her with chilly suspicion.

“I think I’m in shock too, Cap,” Darcy replied facetiously, when she had gotten herself a bit more under control. The Captain was clearly her ally here, and she was going to do her damnedest to keep it that way because she had no idea where the hell she even was, and it didn’t look like her soulmate was going to be too keen on helping her out.

Captain America shifted slightly on his haunches. How he’d stayed in that squat position for so long Darcy would never understand, but she envied his muscle control. “Can I get you water or something?”

Darcy smiled faintly. “What’s ‘or something’?”

Rogers chuckled. Barnes did not.

“We’ve only got water and MREs. Sorry,” Cap said, shrugging.

Darcy had never experienced the culinary delights of MREs before, but she’d heard some stories around the Avengers facility, and she knew that it wasn’t an experience one should rush into.

“Just water, please.”

Rogers stood, but Barnes had already strode from the room, muttering, “I got it.”

Darcy was honestly relieved. She wasn’t ready to be left alone with him…and frankly, it was a pleasure to watch him walk away. His body had that incredible shoulder to waist ratio that tended to only appear on Hollywood action stars and his ass looked biteable in those black tac pants.

Steve cleared his throat and Darcy jumped slightly, blushing when she caught his amused gaze. Subtlety was _not_ her middle name.

(It was Georgina, if you were wondering.)

Barnes returned all too soon, handing her the sealed water bottle carefully, like he was afraid that her hand would touch his.

Darcy cracked the bottle open and took a large gulp to steady herself.

“Where are we?” she asked,.

“About-”

“Eastern Europe,” Barnes cut in, glaring sharply at the Captain.

Darcy glanced between the two men, eyebrows raised to show just how little she appreciated that vague answer.

Rogers caved, of course. “The Ukraine.”

“That’s enough, punk,” Barnes interjected, when it looked like his buddy was going to say more. “I gotta question for you, now,” he said to Darcy, who straightened at  the full force of his icy gaze. “Where are you from? How did you get here?”

“That’s two questions,” Darcy’s smart mouth responded before her brain could hit the brakes. Rogers snorted, but Barnes looked like he was about the crack his teeth.

“Answer both of them,” he said coldly, crossing his arms over his chest. It made him look even bigger and more intimidating, and Darcy knew she was sick in the head to find that a turn on.

“You aren’t going to believe me. It’s crazy,” Darcy protested.

Rogers and Barnes shared a long glance. “Try us,” Barnes insisted.

Darcy shifted, stretching her legs out in front of her and tucking her hair behind her ears. She knew they were silly little stalling tactics, but she couldn’t help herself. “Don’t ask any questions until I’m finished, okay?” Both men nodded.

Darcy took a deep breath. “I’m not from this dimension. I come from another one, which is really similar to here, except we don’t have daemons,” she began, noting the immediate consternation on their faces. Perhaps they had expected her to have a daemon hidden on her person, like a beetle in her hood or a small snake tucked up her sleeve. “We have these things called soulmarks, which are supposed to be the first words that your soulmate says to you. Anyway, almost a year ago I ended up in this world for a short time, by accident, and then I was returned to my dimension, but I felt…wrong. Like I should be in this world, and not my own. So I asked a friend to see if he could help me out and he did, so…here I am.”

Steve shook his head lightly, as if the influx of information was all too much. Barnes had a deep groove between his eyebrows.

“How did your ‘friend’ get you here?” Steve asked.

Darcy sighed. “His Mom has some…magical abilities, and she gave me a potion.”

“Like in _Harry Potter_?”

She smiled at the fact that his mind had immediately gone there. “Sort of. No Hogwarts, though.”

“ _Bull. Shit._ ” Barnes couldn’t have sounded like more of a condescending asshole if he’d tried, and it got Darcy’s back up.

“Why the fuck did you even ask me if you weren’t planning to believe what I said?” she snapped, her voice echoing in the empty gloom of the warehouse.

“Fine. Say we buy your story about being from another _dimension_ ,” Barnes all but sneered, “How come you landed here, huh? Why are you in this warehouse? Were you in a warehouse in the Ukraine in your world?”

Damn him, damn him, _damn him!_ Darcy cursed Barnes out in her mind. How dare he be so perspicacious?

She tried to keep her expression neutral, channelling all of her scorn for soulbonds and her dislike of her soulmate into her voice: “I don’t know why I’m here, now. I was in upstate New York before I came here.”

“What were you doing in upstate New York?”

“That’s where I live and work.”

Barnes’ eyes gleamed like the proverbial cat that was about to catch a canary.

“And who do you work for?”

“The Avengers.”

Barnes narrowed his eyes, but Rogers looked intrigued. “How’s that?” he asked.

Darcy shrugged. “You all live in the upstate facility, well except Stark”-both men flinched-“I’m Hill’s assistant. Maria Hill?”

Rogers nodded. “I know her. She’s an ally.”

“She’s one of Stark’s,” Barnes growled.

“So you guys still have beef with Tony?” Darcy asked. She recalled that Stark had been struggling with the Accords on her last visit to this dimension, and it was looking very much like the issue hadn’t been resolved.

Steve frowned. “I don’t know what ‘beef’-”

“I killed his parents, and now he’s huntin’ us down. So yeah, we’ve got ‘beef’,” Barnes interjected clearly understanding the modern lingo.

“Oh.” Darcy didn’t really know how to respond to something like that. Barnes looked like he regretted saying as much as he had.

“How come you’re out here?” Darcy asked, tentatively. ‘Warehouse in the middle of the Ukrainian countryside’ seemed pretty random.

Barnes looked away.

Rogers sighed. “We’re looking for something.”

Darcy doubted she’d be getting much info at this point, so she didn’t challenge the vague answer.

“Is it safe?” she asked instead. “I mean, safe for _me._ ”

“I don’t want to jinx it, but you should be safe in here. Relatively speaking,” Rogers replied, voice steady.

Darcy nodded, looking around the barren space. There was nothing but a couple of duffel bags and a suspicious looking mattress in one corner. The rafters were full of cobwebs and god knows what else. A large hole in the ceiling let in a faint shaft of moonlight, the only source of light apart from the small fire burning at Barnes’ feet.

“Is this your base or something?” Darcy inquired.

Barnes snorted.

“No,” Rogers admitted. She was hardly surprised- there wasn’t any tech, and it didn’t look like there was much food around, either. “We’ve been moving around for a while. This is just the latest stop over.”

Darcy grimaced. If they had been bouncing from one abandoned warehouse to another, she felt hella sorry for them. It certainly wasn’t a luxurious lifestyle for ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.’

And then it hit her. The Accords. _Of course._ Rogers and Barnes were fugitives. They couldn’t hang out in fancy hotels or even shitty motels because they were wanted men.

God, what the hell had she landed in the middle of? Her acquaint training before she joined the Avengers’ admin team had _not_ prepared her for this.

“And when will you be moving on again?” Darcy asked, voice quiet.

Rogers chewed on his lip. “Probably a couple of days. We’re still scoping a place out, but it doesn’t look promising-” Barnes sighed loudly, cutting off whatever else his buddy was about to say.

Darcy glared at him, but he only stared back at her impassively, like she was an annoying little fly he’d just love to swat.

“What are you going to do with me?” Darcy regretted just how much that sentence made her sound like a damsel in distress from some shitty old movie, but it was a fairly pressing concern.

Rogers and Barnes shared a long look.

“Can’t you go back to where you came from?” Barnes said on an exhale.

Darcy bristled at the impatience in his voice. “Not just yet.”

He shrugged. “Then I guess you’re coming with us.” He didn’t sound at all thrilled.

Rogers smiled at her reassuringly, but Darcy did _not_ feel reassured.

* * *

 

It had taken Darcy the better part of an hour to drift off, what with being in a strange location, with men she didn’t actually know, and trying to get comfortable in a sleeping bag that was resting on a literal pile of straw.

“Look, let’s just go now.”

Darcy stirred, wavering between wakefulness and sleep. She was pretty exhausted, so she tried to push herself back into dreamland.

“No way. We’re not doing that!”

The frantic whispers of two men tickled at the edge of her conscious mind. Who were they?

“Look, punk. This ain’t normal. There’s something up with her, and I for one am not willing to wait and find out what that is!”

“I said no.” The man had raised his voice just a little too much, and Darcy was suddenly very awake.

“You’re not in charge here!”

She didn’t dare move, her heart pounding like a terrified rabbit’s as she tried to get her bearings. It was dark and the air outside her sleeping bag was cool, but not completely freezing.

“Bucky, we are not leaving her here in the middle of nowhere. What’s the matter with you?”

Oh, right. She was in another dimension, sharing a big, dilapidated barn with Captain America and her soulmate, Bucky Barnes.

Terrific.

Not wanting them to know that she had overheard their frankly insulting conversation, Darcy groaned sleepily and turned over in the tight confines of the sleeping bag, doing her best to keep her breathing even. They probably had super-duper-soldier hearing, and she did _not_ want to have to deal with the awkward fact that her soulmate was apparently gung-ho for ditching her at the first opportunity.

Steve had apparently found just the right combo of words to get Barnes to stick around. Or, at the very least, to stop insisting that they abandon her.

The barn fell silent, and Darcy tried desperately to count sheep, even though her mind couldn’t stop fixating on Barnes’ cold words.

Darcy didn’t want to be one of _those_ people who cared what everyone thought of them, but she was. Her friends who were devil-may-care had always tried to talk her out of her people-pleasing ways, but she couldn’t help it. She liked to be liked, and she especially wanted Barnes to trust her. She felt like that would be a huge achievement; he seemed the sort who didn’t really trust anyone but himself. Well, maybe apart from Rogers. But she wanted to be on that list, however short it was. It felt…wrong that her soulmate wanted to leave her. It hurt more than she’d care to admit, even to herself, that he didn’t feel the pull that she did.

She glowered to herself. _Fuck him. He doesn’t want me? Fine. I don’t want him either. Looking for my soulmate was so stupid, anyway. Why did I do this to myself? I knew it was going to be a bust._

Her thoughts full of poison and misery, Darcy eventually nodded back off into a fitful sleep, perfectly unaware that Barnes was watching her.

 

**~Day Two~**

* * *

 

Darcy felt guilty for even raising the subject, but it occurred to her that they were in the middle of nowhere, and she had only one set of clothes. She hadn’t anticipated that finding her soulmate would mean going on the run in Europe, so she hadn’t thought to bring luggage on her interdimensional trip.

“Uh, any chance there’s a hidden mall around these parts?” She asked at breakfast that morning, chowing down on the boiled eggs Bucky had bartered from a local farmer. They tasted so good after the MREs they'd had for dinner the night before that Darcy had moaned a tad pornographically at her first taste of the yolk (the expressions on Barnes and Steve’s faces had been priceless).

Steve grimaced. “No. Sorry, Darce. We’re deep in the countryside, here. Nearest substantial town is about a hundred miles away. We should be passing through one in a couple of days.”

Darcy’s heart sank. She had expected as much. “It’s just…I kinda only have these clothes,” she explained, gesturing to herself. Barnes’ eyes followed her hand and Darcy suppressed a blush.

“Shit, sorry. I didn’t even think of that. You can borrow something of ours in the meantime,” Steve said.

And that was that.

Until that night when Barnes approached her right before she was about to curl up in her sleeping bag.

“Here,” he said, voice and expression as stoic as ever. He was trying to hand her a bundle of dark red fabric.

Darcy sat up, plucking the shirt from his hand. It was a well-worn Henley, probably size XXXL judging by the amount of fabric she was holding, and it smelled like him.

_Oh boy._

“Thanks, Barnes,” she said, smiling up at him. He blinked at her in surprise.  She shook the shirt out, turning it in her hands to inspect it. “This’ll make a nice dress for me,” she added, with a hint of mischief.

The edges of Barnes’ lips twitched. “It’d make a nice tent for you. You’re so… tiny.”

Darcy’s eyebrows rose of their own volition. She had _never_ been called ‘tiny’ by a guy, at least not sincerely. She wasn’t one of those delicate, fine-boned women, and even as a kid she’d been ‘well-built’ (her mother’s words), but peering up at Barnes with his broad shoulders and big tree-trunk arms, she _did_ feel small. In a good way, though. In a ‘I know he’d take care of me if I needed’ kind of way.

Barnes cleared his throat, his eyes darting down to the floor. “Good night.”

“Night, Barnes.” Darcy rolled onto her side, facing away from the light of the fire. She could see Barnes’ shadow moving on the wall opposite. He paced for a while before sitting. She didn’t know if he ever actually slept, because she’d yet to see evidence of it. He seemed like he was always wired; always _on._

She, on the other hand, _did_ need to sleep. And if she bundled up Barnes’ shirt and tucked it under her cheek so that she could smell his scent as she drifted off, well…no one else needed to know what a loser she was.

 

**~Day Three~**

* * *

 

Darcy was kind of bored by day three. Sure, the surrounding countryside was gorgeous, but Steve had politely asked her not to wander too far from the barn, apart from…y’know, when nature called.

The guys didn’t exactly have laptops or TVs on hand. They did, however, have a very fancy-looking tablet that Steve check periodically, but it looked work-related, so Darcy didn’t bother asking if she could surf Buzzfeed on it.

She had been walking circles around the barn all morning, trying to ignore how desperately she was craving coffee and sugar, when Steve appeared suddenly at her side.

Darcy was ashamed to admit that she jumped about a foot in the air.

“Sorry, Darce,” Steve said, his grin far too amused, “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. My heart’s just restabilising now,” she replied drily, “Good trip?”

He nodded, leading the way into the barn. “Got a bit more info, but it’s slow progress. Like having to collect all the pieces of a jigsaw without even knowing what the picture is,” he confessed, sitting down heavily on a haystack. That should’ve made Darcy laugh, Captain America sitting on a haystack, but they were the closest thing to couches, and a damn sight comfier than the floor.

“You were certainly quick.” It had been a dawn raid. Steve had warned her about it the night before, and he’d even left her a gun for protection. At the time, she hadn’t had the heart to tell him that she had absolutely no clue how to shoot.

“Bonus of it just being the two of us,” he said, shrugging. There was a bit of dried blood on his cheek, but no sign of actual injury. Either the serum had healed him up fast or the blood was someone else’s.

She heard the unspoken part of his sentence; with it only being the two of them they were seriously lacking back up and couldn’t risk hitting bigger bases. Darcy wondered about the other Avengers, but didn’t dare ask.

“Besides, I was kinda worried about leaving you too long,” he confessed, looking a little bashful. Darcy wanted to be indignant at the suggestion that she couldn’t take care of herself, but it was frankly true.

She withdrew the gun from her waistband. “Well maybe you could teach me how to use this thing and then you wouldn’t need to worry.”

Alarm crossed Steve’s face as he realised just how unprotected she had been.

“You don’t know how to shoot?”

“Nope. Not a clue.”

Steve suddenly became very interested in checking the soles of his boots. “If you wanna learn to shoot, Bucky’s your guy.” Darcy was thankful that he wasn’t looking at her, so he couldn’t see her ears flare red at his words.

His remark was a little too on the nose.

She headed outside, where Barnes was sitting on a log in front of the fire pit, appearing to actually enjoy a cup of reconstituted coffee. _Gross._

“So Barnes, I hear you’re the person I should go to about shooting guys in the balls,” Darcy declared, taking a seat on the log next to him.

“ _What?_ ” he choked, turning to look at her. Darcy was fairly certain she’d seen coffee come out his nose, but that might’ve just been wishful thinking.

“Can you show me how to shoot?” she clarified.

Barnes set his cup on the ground, his bionic hand resting on his knee as he scrutinised her.

“You ever used a gun before?”

“Nope,” she replied, popping the ‘p’. In truth, she’d never liked guns, never thought that they were a good idea, but here she was out in the wilds of Ukraine with two super heroes who were infiltrating known (former) Hydra bases. She needed to be able to defend herself if worst came to worst.

Barnes stared at her for a moment with those chillingly blue eyes. “Alright,” he said, a faint smile curving his lips. “I’ll teach you.”

* * *

 

“Son of a bitch!”

Barnes sighed. “Jesus. How did you manage to hit _yourself_ with the brass. Seventy years of usin’ a gun, and I’ve never seen that before.”

Darcy gave him a sour look, but he just smirked.

The problem was, Darcy was not a natural with a gun, and Barnes was not a natural instructor. She felt like he couldn’t understand _why_ she was so bad at shooting, and given his long history as an assassin, she could kind of appreciate that. Barnes knew guns; shooting one was second nature to him, so teaching a complete novice was proving a challenge.

“Look, your form’s still not right-”

Darcy winced. “Sorry-”

“Stop sayin’ sorry,” he chastised, his hands coming up to reposition her shoulders. Every time he touched her, even through her clothes, Darcy thought she might either spontaneously combust, or jump on him. It wasn’t helping her already fraught nerves.

She shook her wrist lightly, agitated by the over-long sleeves of the borrowed Henley.

Barnes tutted, and Darcy watched in slow motion as he carefully tugged back the sleeve of her (his!) shirt, exposing the first two words of her soulmark. It was natural for him to be curious, and Darcy knew that he and Steve had sensational eyesight, so she had worked really hard to keep her mark covered completely any time they were nearby.

Barnes’ head tilted slightly, and Darcy could practically hear the gears whirring in his mind as she stared at his profile.

“Set the gun down,” he said eventually, his voice raw. He still hadn’t let go of her forearm, so Darcy awkwardly lowered her hand enough to safely set the gun down.

This was going to be painful enough- she didn’t need to go shooting him or herself by accident.

Once she had done what he said, Bucky shifted, catching her wrist in his metal grasp and pushing her sleeve out of the way with his other hand.

“Bucky-” Darcy didn’t know what to say. She felt like she could puke, or worse, faint like some Victorian miss.

Bucky traced the rough pad of his thumb over the words, and Darcy shivered. “That’s my handwriting,” he said, slowly, as if he weren’t quite sure. “I…I said that to you, when-”

His eyes darted up to hers, and all she could see in the pale blue was unadulterated terror. He released her, backing slowly away like she was a rabid animal ready to maul him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to-”

“What…what does this _mean_?” Barnes asked, tugging at the neckline of his t-shirt. His eyes were darting frantically around the large space, but he made no move to leave.

Darcy wrung her hands. “It means…it means. Okay. Basically, you’re my soulmate.” The words fell with a proverbial crash between them, and Darcy winced at her own bluntness. It wasn’t exactly customary to have to tell someone that they were your soulmate- normally the matching marks and the tingling feeling of joy were enough to clue even the slowest of people into what had just occurred.

Bucky stared at her for a long moment, his face slack, before he violently shook his head and sprinted outside.

Darcy watched him go with a sense of pure despair. That was _not_ how she had planned to break the news to him.

She pulled the sleeve of the Henley down to her fingertips, wishing that Frigga had given her a potion to turn back time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to give a rough idea of Steve and Bucky's situation (in this dimension). _Civil War_ happened pretty much as seen in the movie, with a notable exception: no big Iron Man/Winter Soldier & Cap showdown. T'Challa intervened (before Buckster lost his arm) and waylaid Stark enough that Bucky and Steve could escape from the Siberia base. Their primary aim now is to find Bucky's daemon which, in this 'verse, is absolutely vital to his recovery- more shall be revealed in time...
> 
> Also, I know nothing about guns, so sorry if the info is all rubbish!
> 
> Thanks for the feedback! I forgot how fun it is to share fics here :D
> 
> Happy Christmas Eve Eve!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Please note that this chapter contains explicit content.**  
>   
> 
> If this is not your cuppa, please stop reading at the line _She held her breath, watching as he battled with himself..._ and resume at _He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye..._.

**~Day Four~**

* * *

 

 

They had acquired a beat up old 4x4 (Darcy didn’t ask where it had come from, but a raised eyebrow had made Steve turn pink with guilt, which was answer enough) and had trundled through over a hundred and fifty miles of really beautiful Ukrainian countryside in near total silence.

Steve had made some valiant efforts to keep up a steady flow of conversation when they first left the barn, but Darcy could barely muster up a handful of ‘uh huhs’ and ‘totallys’. Bucky was a quiet, oppressive presence in the back seat. Darcy had expected him to call shotgun, and knowing that he was behind her, that he could be _watching_ her, was setting her on edge.

Bucky hadn’t spoken to her since the ‘incident with the gun’, as Darcy had dubbed it in her own head. Part of her actually wished she had shot him in the foot or something. That would’ve been less awkward than him discovering that he was her soulmate. Her mind kept playing that look of horror on his face over and over on a loop.

It felt like someone had come along in the middle of the night and scooped out all of her major organs while she slept.

Not only was she upset that he _knew_ , she was also disappointed that their relationship had taken a huge step backwards because of it. She had finally felt like she was making some headway in getting him to like her- he had been almost friendly while teaching her to shoot- but now it had all gone to hell.

It wasn’t supposed to be this hard.

Darcy rested her head against the window, letting her eyes lose focus so that the countryside just sort of blurred at the corner of her vision in a haze of oranges and yellows and browns.

At nightfall they pulled up at the wreck of an old cottage. It honestly looked to be in only marginally better condition than the barn they had just left, and Darcy groaned internally. Still, it was better than sleeping outside with the stars and the wolves.

After Bucky had checked over the premises, he set about starting a fire in the yard. Steve beckoned Darcy into the house with a sympathetic look and showed her to the single bedroom. It wasn’t half as bad as she had expected, and when Steve opened a door to reveal a tiny bathroom complete with shower, she nearly cried in relief.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Steve said, handing her a towel and some soap from his pack with a smile.

The shower water ran rust red for several minutes, but as soon as it was relatively clear Darcy dove in, sighing happily despite the luke warm temperature. Steve and Barnes hadn’t exactly thought to bring fancy soaps and shampoos with them, so Darcy made do with the simple bottle of 2-in-1 shampoo and bodywash. She had never much liked using those things, but given that most of her former boyfriends had used some variant of them, Darcy knew that she was in for a night of attempting to coax the snarls out of her thick hair.

Still, tangled hair was better than greasy hair, and she massaged the soap-shampoo vigorously into her scalp.

Darcy had never really understood what is was about showers that encouraged the cogs in her mind to start turning. Some people sang in the shower. Some people shaved. Darcy, on the other hand, _thought._ About anything and everything that was bugging her.

Right now, the ‘thing’ that was bugging her happened to be six feet tall and built like a brick shithouse, and his words were on Darcy’s forearm, glinting teasingly up at her as the water sluiced over her skin.

Barnes hadn’t spoken a single word to her since their… _incident_ during shooting practice the day before. Given that he, she, and Steve were pretty much together 24/7, his ability to ignore her was borderline impressive, if not a little hurtful.

But she got it. _She did._ Barnes didn’t know squat about soulmarks beyond what she’d let slip the night of her arrival. It was understandable that he was weirded out at seeing his words on her skin. Besides, she reasoned that he didn’t feel the pull like she did, that irritating need to be close to your soulmate, to know that they’re alright.

Darcy wasn’t used to feeling _this_ concerned about another human being, this _in tune_ with someone, and it was messing with her head. Her happiness couldn’t be contingent on Barnes. It just couldn’t.

Reluctantly, she shut off the water, knowing that Steve and Barnes still had to wash after her. She was tempted to leave Bucky with a cold shower, but Steve had been a total sweetheart to her, so she wouldn’t do that to him.

Wringing out her hair with a sigh, Darcy wrangled it into a messy braid and began patting herself down with the tiny towel. Again, the guys were traveling light; Darcy was just fortunate that Steve had thought to bring a spare towel or she’d have had to share one with them. Not that she believed either of them had cooties, but still, drying yourself with a damp towel was beyond grim.

Wrapping the small towel around herself in a sort of dress, she headed back into the bedroom. Her clothes were lying rumpled on the bed, and she wished again for a clean outfit. _Soon, Steve said it’d be a day or two._ Just as she was about to drop the towel, Darcy felt a prickling on the back of her neck.

She whirled around to see Bucky standing in the bedroom doorway, his jaw slack and his arms hanging uselessly by his sides.

Darcy squeaked, desperately trying to pull the small towel over her private areas.

"Barnes!" Darcy cried with exasperation when it became clear he wasn't going to move without some prompting.

Bucky shook his head, staggering back a couple of steps into the hallway.

"Sorry, I....sorry," he repeated, his voice rougher than Darcy had ever heard it.

She stared at him, her eyes unable to move away from him. Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room shifted. Bucky peered at her through the curtain of his hair, his hands clenching into fists and releasing rhythmically.

Darcy didn’t move a muscle for fear of disturbing the moment. As sure as a deer knows a wolf is coming for it, she knew that Bucky was psyching himself up to do...something.

She held her breath, watching as he battled with himself. Some part of him clearly won out because suddenly he was striding towards her, jaw set and eyes focussed. He was in full combat gear, and he looked dark and dangerous. But he also looked so sexy that Darcy whimpered even before he tugged her towel away and lifted her in his arms like she weighed nothing.

Without conscious thought, her legs wrapped around his waist, her forearms balancing on his broad shoulders as he pressed her up against the wall. Bucky tilted his head up and the sight of his big blue eyes peering up at her, pupils dilated, made something in Darcy’s stomach quiver. She slid one of her hands to the soft skin at the nape of his neck, almost holding him in place as she tentatively ghosted her lips over his.

Bucky wasn’t interested in such tentative touches. His fingers flexed on her waist, his lips pressing urgently against hers and his tongue licking into her mouth as soon as she allowed him entrance.

It felt like every dark look and barbed word they’d thrown at each other these past few days had all been building up to this…whatever it was.

The knife at his lower back was digging into her leg, the wall at her bare back was hard and cold, and the fabric of his jacket was surprisingly abrasive against her nipples.

But Darcy didn’t care- _couldn’t_ care- about any kind of discomfort as Bucky sucked possessive kisses down the column of her throat, his right hand coiled in the end of her braid tipping her head back to give him access.

This was…beyond anything she’d ever felt. She loved sex, but she was always in control, always telling her partner what to do and when. This time, she hazily admitted to herself that she was just along for the ride. The sheer effort of clinging onto Barnes was difficult enough.

Darcy slid her fingers into the hair at the nape of Bucky’s neck as he nipped and licked his way across her collarbones. The strands were thick and silky between her fingers, and something about the intimacy of touching his hair filled her with a bubbling sense of pleasure.

She moaned loudly when he shifted her up, banding his metal arm around her back for support and gripping her thigh with his other hand to hold her up as he sucked at her nipples.

She gripped his hair tighter, panting as his tongue encouraged her pleasure. The edges of his teeth caught on her sensitive skin and she squirmed, desperately trying to get some sort of friction going between her thighs. The position in which Barnes was holding her meant that she didn’t have the satisfaction of feeling what he was packing where she wanted it, and with that cybernetic arm holding her in place, she didn’t have a hope of getting what she wanted without vocalising it.

Still, the small, petulant part of her pride insisted that she wasn’t going to beg. No way.

She tried tugging at his hair, but it seemed that he simply took it as encouragement to keep up the stellar job he was doing.

Darcy huffed. “ _Barnes_. Get in me,” she demanded. If her voice sounded a little whiney, a little pleading, well could she be blamed? She was only human, after all.

Apparently despite his taciturn nature, Bucky Barnes was not one to tease a lady. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than he was using that deliciously muscled torso to pin her against the wall whilst his right hand stroked its way under her thigh and straight to her core.

Darcy flung her head back on a gasp as two of Barnes’ fingers slid inside her, hitting all the right places. The wet sound of his hand fucking in and out of her was loud in the small room, but she couldn’t be embarrassed. What he was doing was just too _good._

Putting paid to her suspicion that he was a breast man, Barnes continued to pay close attention to her girls as his fingers pounded into her. Darcy hadn’t ever thought of her boobs as a particularly erogenous zone (for her), but he was playing her like a fiddle. Even the slight burn of his stubble was a turn on, so Darcy wasn’t surprised that when he pressed his calloused thumb to her clit she immediately experienced the best orgasm of her life. She had totally seen it coming. Pun intended.

When she came down from her high, Darcy was only marginally disappointed to see that Barnes hadn’t used the time to pull down his pants and move onto the next round. His cheek was pressed to the space between her boobs, the rapid flutter of his breath raising goose pimples on her skin.

She cleared her throat, and Barnes looked up at her with the beginnings of a guilty conscience swimming in his eyes.

_No, no, no._

“Take off your pants,” she demanded, digging her heels into his ass as if she were about to try pulling them down without his help.

Barnes continued to stare at her with that torn expression, but Darcy was never a one-orgasm girl, nor was she one to leave her sexy partner high and dry.

Plus, she’d been lusting after Barnes’ bad-boy attitude for days, and she wasn’t about to pass up this incredible opportunity to blow his mind.

“ _Bucky_. C’mon…I want you,” she murmured, looking him in the eyes and willing him to believe her.

It was like her words had flipped a switch. Barnes balanced her with his cybernetic arm again, and she hummed happily at the sound of his zipper being roughly tugged open.

The wet, swollen head of his cock trailed along her inner thigh as he lined himself up. His raised his brows slightly as he looked up at her, and his meaning couldn’t have been clearer: last chance to back out.

He asked, anyway. “You sure?” His voice was rough and husky with lust, and it made something in Darcy’s stomach clench.

Darcy pulled his face closer to hers, her lips trailing over his. “Yes.”

He slid into her without further preamble. The stretch of her muscles around him was delicious and Darcy moaned loudly as he bottomed out and withdrew, pounding back into her with a controlled, powerful beat that had her climbing towards her second orgasm within minutes.

Trying to pace herself, she looked down at Barnes. His eyes were closed tightly, his brow furrowed and his teeth biting into that plump bottom lip as if the pleasure he was feeling was simply too much.

His expression made something dark and possessive unfurl inside Darcy. She wanted him to come undone. She wanted him to shout her name.

She twisted her fingers into the roots of his hair, leaning down to whisper in his ear. “Bucky, let go,” she entreated, nibbling on the lobe and grinning with satisfaction when a moan escaped from him.

His steady pace didn’t waver though, and she figured that he was trying to be a gentleman and wait for her.

She had zero patience for that crap.

“ _Bucky_ ,” she hummed, kissing her way across his cheekbone and catching his lovely lips with her own. He groaned again, his fingers tightening on her hips. “I want you to come inside me.”

Barnes made a noise like she’d hurt him, his eyes flying open and locking with hers as his orgasm rolled over him. The look on his face when he came was seared into Darcy’s mind, an odd blend of pride and delight taking hold of her as she saw (and felt) just how much he had enjoyed it.

His head dropped to her shoulder, his hips twitching against hers with the dying embers of his arousal. “ _Darcy_ ,” he murmured, his voice like dark honey. He looked so out of it that Darcy was impressed he hadn’t dropped her on her ass.

She pressed butterfly kisses along the damp skin of his hairline as he gathered himself, indulging in his scent as his breathing gradually came back under control. She briefly wondered when he had last had sex, but quickly decided that that was a thought trail where misery lay.

“Did you…?” Bucky’s husky voice startled Darcy out of her jealousy bubble. Seriously, he was still (just) inside her, and she was worrying if he’d been giving it to any other chicks after he escaped Hydra. She was an idiot.

“Hmm? Oh um yeah, y’know, the first t-” She didn’t even get to finish the sentence before Bucky was pulling his hips away from her and sliding three of his fingers inside her, the tips of them pressing determinedly against that toe-curling spot until she went limp with a second orgasm.

“Wow,” Darcy whispered, her voice slightly strangled and small white stars sparkling behind her eyelids. She had always thought ‘seeing stars’ was just some poetic bullshit, but no, Bucky had literally made her see stars.

He wouldn’t look at her as he gently withdrew his fingers, and carefully set her back on her own two feet. It was a miracle that she could stand.

Bucky turned away slightly, zipping up his pants and discreetly putting his messy fingers in his mouth. Darcy felt her knees wobble. Was he trying to kill her? By the looks of it, he was up for a second round. Apparently super-soldier stamina was a real thing.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, but it wasn’t a smug or ‘come hither’ kind of look. It was a vulnerable look, one that said he was about three seconds away from fleeing.

Too satisfied to care that she was the only naked person in the room, Darcy stepped forward, reaching for his arm. Bucky let her pull him close, into something that could’ve passed for a stiff hug. She felt like they could both do with some cuddles, so she pressed herself closer, smiling into his chest when his arms slowly wrapped around her.

Standing next to Steve all the time, Bucky didn’t seem huge, but he was. The top of Darcy’s head barely reached his chin, and his chest was broad and firm beneath her cheek.

She tilted her head up, trying to catch his eye. The skin of his exposed throat was hot when she pressed her lips to it, the rapid beat of his heart so strong she could feel it. Her nose was full of his natural scent mixed with a hint of sweat, and it was absolutely intoxicating.

She had never had sex like it before. She could hardly feel her legs and her mouth was dry from crying out. Darcy had had sex before, plenty of times, but it had never felt like that; passionate and desperate and explosive. No man had ever held her up against a wall and fucked her. Hell, none of Darcy’s past lovers could’ve held her up for more than about five seconds. She knew that Bucky had just ruined her for all other men.

The dark fabric that his tac gear was made from was thick and skin-tight, but Darcy found herself trying to cling to it anyway. Bucky’s breath rasped loudly in the quiet space of the bedroom. Her own breath probably sounded just as ragged, but Darcy was too focussed on Bucky to notice. His big hands were warm on her back, and she could feel his lips moving in the hair at the crown of her head. She didn’t know what to say, or what to do. This was uncharted territory, and Bucky had proven that he could be skittish.

“Get some rest,” he said, eventually, looking down at her. His voice was soft, a matching caress to the thumb stroking her cheekbone, but his expression was blank when he stepped away from her.

She nodded, reaching for her towel. Bucky didn’t leave the room until she had it tucked securely around her. His eyes lingered as he walked away, but Darcy couldn’t read them at all.

_God, what have I done?_

* * *

 

Sleep was hard to find. Darcy couldn’t stop thinking about Bucky: how he felt, how he smelled, how soft his hair was and what his face looked like when he came.

After over an hour of lying in the dark with her mind percolating, Darcy decided it was useless. She wasn’t going to sleep any time soon.

She pulled on her jeans and her sneakers, and wandered outside. The warm light of a fire was illuminating a crumbled barn wall at the front of the cottage, the long shadow of a figure sitting next to it visible from the front door.

The movement of another shadow told Darcy that it wasn’t Bucky sitting out there, and her heart dropped slightly.

She joined Steve on the low bench, smiling at his soft greeting. Lincoln blinked at her with those big, knowing gold eyes.

Darcy found herself staring determinedly into the flames, vignettes of what had just occurred flashing through her mind. She wondered if Steve knew that she and Bucky had just fucked inside the house. He probably had, between his super-hearing and that of his daemon.

Darcy found that she was too wrung out to be genuinely embarrassed.

“Before I got the serum, most people who met me could hardly believe that Lincoln was my daemon,” Steve said suddenly, his voice soft in the night air. “Every kid wanted a fierce daemon like that, but most of them didn’t get one.  None of them could believe that weak little Steve Rogers had a lion daemon, but my Mam always told me, your daemon ain’t about how you are on the outside, it’s how you are on the inside.”

Darcy knew that Steve was doing his best to distract her, and kind of loved him for it. “Well in that case a lion is absolutely perfect for you,” she said, charmed by his shy smile.

Steve ran a hand through Lincoln’s shaggy mane. “Y’know, it’s pretty unusual for a daemon to be the same gender as their human. I used to get a lot of stick for it.”

“Really?” Darcy’s mind was all over the place, but she was interested enough in daemons to hang onto Steve’s every word.

“Yep. Brooklyn in the 1930s, well…it could be a nasty place. People could be real ignorant, especially kids. When I was in middle school one of the bullies started a rumour that Lincoln was male because I was homosexual.”

“‘Ignorant’ is a polite word.”

Steve smiled at her. “‘Course, me spendin’ all my time with Buck didn’t exactly help those rumours…til Bucky grew up a bit and learned how to charm a lady-” Perhaps catching the look on her face, he stopped talking abruptly.

 Darcy mustered up a smirk, even though she really didn’t like thinking about Bucky with other women. Especially not when she could still feel the ache of him between her legs. “So you and Bucky never…?” She waggled her eyebrows.

Steve chuckled. “Nah. I like women. He likes women.”

“Do you like any woman in particular?” She couldn’t help but prod. Steve immediately flushed, answering her question without uttering a word.

“Uh-”

“Steve, relax. I’m just joking. You don’t have to tell me.”

He looked relieved; if Bucky was a stone wall, then Steve was an open book. His emotions were always on his sleeve. Darcy was surprised by just how much she wanted to know who he was smitten with, but she knew that despite his inability to hide his emotions, Steve was a private guy.

Casting around for another topic of conversation, Darcy landed on the question that had been stewing in her mind for days.

“Can I ask you something…personal?”

Steve’s eyebrows rose. “Sure, Darcy.”

She lowered her voice. “Why doesn’t Bucky have a daemon?”

Lincoln growled lowly, and Darcy feared that she had asked something terribly inappropriate. Glancing up at Steve, she saw fire in his blue gaze, but the anger wasn’t directed at her.

“Hydra,” he spat the word out, his jaw clenched noticeably even under his significant beard. “Whatever they did to him to make him into the Winter Soldier…it damaged the bond with his daemon. We don’t know what exactly they did to her. That’s why we’re out here, looking for information.”

“Oh,” Darcy whispered. She suddenly felt terrible for judging Bucky’s prickly attitude. She had known only a small amount of how Bucky Barnes had become the Winter Soldier due to rumours in her own world, but the disappearance of his daemon added a new level. From all of the reactions to her when she arrived in this world (twice!), Darcy knew that not having a daemon here was akin to not having a soulmark in her world- completely unthinkable and downright unnatural.

“What’s his daemon like?”

Steve stared fixedly at the fire. For a long moment, it seemed like he wasn’t going to answer. “She’s a grey wolf, named Andromeda.”

Darcy digested that. It seemed to her that a grey wolf suited Bucky perfectly: fierce, loyal, and scrappy.

“Where do their names come from?”

“Usually a kid’s parents name the daemon. My parents had just emigrated from Ireland a couple of years before I was born, and I think they were tryin’ to be real American patriots. Bucky’s Pa loved astronomy, so I reckon that’s where Andromeda came from.”

Darcy frowned lightly. To _her,_ Andromeda was the princess from Greek mythology who got sacrificed to a sea creature and had to be rescued. Not exactly a fortuitous name.

“I…I don’t really know anything about daemons. Or Hydra. But if I can help you out…I want to,” she said, looking Steve in the eye.

He smiled slowly, nodding approvingly at her as if he had known that would be her response. “That’s good to hear, Darcy.”

Fighting down a blush, she sniffed theatrically. “Seriously, go and take a shower. I can keep watch. You kind of stink.”

Steve chuckled, getting to his feet. “I know. I would’ve had one earlier, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to interrupt the two of you.” He smirked, completely unfazed by her glower and easily dodging the small branch she flung at his retreating back. His daemon followed alongside him into the shadows of the house, and Darcy wondered if Bucky was nearby.

She shivered.

 

**~Day Five~**

* * *

 

Darcy woke to a gut full of anxiety.

Not only had she broken her own solemn vow to _never_ have unprotected sex -sure, she had the contraceptive injection, but condoms were a must in her book- but she had had that unprotected, amazing, and honestly life-changing sex with Bucky Barnes.

Her soulmate. The guy who hadn’t exactly showered her with interest and affection since she landed in this dimension. And she had just…thrown herself at him. Well, really, he had pounced on her, if you wanted to be technical, but she hadn’t pushed him away. Not even a token show of resistance.

She knew that it wasn’t wholly her fault; Bucky was insanely hot, she was feeling kind of lost in this place, and the bond of the soulmark was apparently strong even if one of you didn’t actually _have_ the mark.

Darcy was drawn to Bucky, and there was no use in denying it, no matter how much it rankled her that her soulbond was sabotaging her logical mind.

If it was the same for Bucky, if he felt the pull like she did, then he was an Oscar-worthy actor. Sure, he’d jumped on her the night previous, but other than that his interest in her seemed to be limited.

She frowned into the mirror, tackling a persistent knot in her hair. It wasn’t like she _wanted_ him to feel so…desperate and out of control. Given his history, the notion of a pre-destined soulbond probably didn’t sound romantic, but instead just another instance of his free-will being compromised.

Steve’s words about Bucky and his daemon the night before echoed in her mind, and she bit her lip. The soulbond was _her_ problem, not Bucky’s. He had enough on his plate, and she was going to do what she could to help. She most certainly wasn’t going to get all clingy and gooey-eyed around him. No, she would be understanding and patient, now that she knew he had a damn good reason for being so grouchy.

That optimistic plan went to hell the second she went to leave the bathroom. Bucky was standing in the bedroom, staring at her, and she got a weird sense of de javu.

Thankfully, she was fully dressed this time. (Not that he’d have any problem ripping her clothes right off her body with that sexy metal arm of his).

 _Bad brain,_ Darcy thought absently, taking in the tense set of his shoulders.

“What’s up?” She reached for her pile of dirty clothes and started unnecessarily folding them on the bed. Anything to keep her hands occupied.

Barnes shifted his weight, but didn’t move any closer.

“Look, we…we shouldn’t’ve…done _that…_ ” His voice trailed off to nothing. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking anywhere but at her.

Darcy felt like she’d just been kicked in the stomach.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” She whispered lowly, trying not to let Steve hear this frankly humiliating conversation. She gritted her teeth and blinked away the angry tears that had rapidly gathered in her eyes.

How dare he sleep with her and then make it sound like some sort of mistake? That _asshole!_

Bucky didn’t look like he knew what to say. In any other circumstance, she might’ve felt sorry for him.

“Don’t think you can just brush this off like it’s some silly mistake, _Bucky Barnes!”_

His eyes flashed with barely contained fury as he finally looked at her.

“I’m not,” he replied, tersely.

Darcy huffed. “Sure sounds like it.”

Bucky hesitated, again. She wanted to scream; trying to have a conversation with him was like pulling teeth.

“I know you’re thinking that this changes things-”

“Don’t you _dare_ tell me what I’m thinking, Bucky!” She yelled, all desire to keep the conversation private flying out the window.

To his credit, Bucky immediately shut up, holding his palms out to her in surrender. That calmed Darcy’s ire, just a bit.

“Yes, we slept together. And no, I don’t expect us to just immediately skip off into ‘Happy Soulmate Land’, but I definitely don’t appreciate you trying to pretend it’s nothing,” Darcy said, her voice starting to waver with tears, “It meant _something._ ”

Bucky was breathing heavily, the rapid rise and fall of his chest visible even through the thick Kevlar. “It’s doesn’t matter what it meant, okay? I’m never going to be well enough to…” He paused, gasping for breath. His eyes were wide and frantic. “I can’t…do that, _be_ that person for you, or for anyone. I’m not…I’m barely human, right now. I haven’t been a real person for seventy years, and if I can’t find Andromeda I never will be. That’s what you don’t understand. There’s nothing here for you,” he concluded, gesturing to himself.

Darcy was stunned into silence as his pain echoed through her own emotions. Before she could muster up a rebuttal, he turned and fled from the room.

She didn’t even consider following him.

She mechanically finished folding her clothes, her gaze fixed on the faint shaft of sunlight coming through the boarded-up window so that she didn’t have to acknowledge the tears shimmering at the edges of her vision or the gaping hole where her heart used to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! A lot happened in this chapter- finally!
> 
> Please do let me know what you think, and many thanks for the feedback so far :) 
> 
> Happy New Year!


	4. Chapter 4

Darcy awoke that evening with a bad case of emotional whiplash. Her sleep the night before had been so poor that she’d decided an afternoon nap was in order. That, and she wanted to avoid Steve and Bucky until she had licked some of her proverbial wounds.

She laid on the bed for a long time, her head still fuzzy with sleep, replaying her argument with Bucky and fruitlessly dissecting every word, every bit of body language that she could remember.

Bucky hadn’t been disgusted by her, and he definitely hadn’t acted like one of those sleazy guys who sleeps with you and then makes it out to be some sort of joke. He seemed frightened and hurt, and Darcy really didn’t know what to do with that.

He didn’t even think of himself as a _real person_. That’s how messed up he was. It twisted at Darcy’s heart, but it also made her sick with anxiety. What the hell was she supposed to do here? If Frigga had seen what a shit storm she’d be sending Darcy into, why did she agree to it in the first place? This wasn’t good for Darcy, and it clearly wasn’t good for Bucky. He didn’t need this added stress in his life.

Darcy knew that she needed to get up and see what the guys were up to, but she didn’t feel like she could face Bucky just yet. She slipped out of the sleeping bag and took her sweet time in the bathroom, staying in the shower until she started to feel slightly human again.

When she had dressed and braided her hair, she headed out to the front of the cottage. Steve was sitting at the makeshift fireplace, tapping away at the tablet. Lincoln was reclining at his feet, looking perfectly content.

She didn’t see Bucky until she walked down the steps; he was standing several yards away, staring into the darkness of the vast grassy fields surrounding the cottage, his arms crossed tightly and his stance stiff and forbidding.

Steve glanced up as she approached, the stress line between his brows relaxing as he smiled at her.

“Evening Darcy.”

She sat down next to him. “Hi,” she replied, wincing at the croak in her voice. She had cried a lot before falling asleep, and it was painfully obvious.

“Water?” Steve asked politely, reaching for the canteen.

Darcy nodded, chugging about half its contents in a few seconds. She immediately felt better, but the twisty feeling in her stomach hadn’t abated, so she opted to forego dinner.

She tried not to stare at Bucky’s back, so she watched Steve instead. He was absorbed with whatever was on that tablet.

“What’re you frowning at?” she asked.

Steve sighed. “Just running over schematics for the next base we want to hit.”

“Oh.” Darcy wondered how many missions they’d been on, just the two of them. She had no idea how long they’d been at this, but judging by the weariness that clung to both them, she figured it was quite a while.

“We think that the base has information about where…some daemons have been kept,” Steve continued, “But we can’t get into the system, and unfortunately our tech is pretty limited.”

Darcy bit her lip. “Maybe I could help. I’m pretty good with computers. Practically hacked my way through college.”

“No fuckin’ way,” Bucky growled, suddenly stalking over to them.

Darcy sighed, but didn’t look at him. _Now he decides to acknowledge me._

“So when’re we doing this?” she asked Steve, suddenly determined to help whether Bucky liked it or not. Steve’s eyes darted warily between her and his best friend.

“Uh…”

She glared fiercely at Bucky who threw his hands up in exasperation. “Fine. Do what you want.”

“Steve?”

He nodded, handing her the tablet. A map with an attached report that contained a lot of numbers with the addendum ‘kj’. “There’s a base in the Carpathians, about three hundred miles southwest of here. It seems pretty dormant now, but for the past two years it’s been clocking an enormous amount of electricity usage.”

“Which means fancy tech?” She guessed, her high school physics coming back to her as she remembered that kj stood for Kilojoules of power.

“Most likely. It also doesn’t belong to any government intelligence agencies, that we know of.”

“Very fishy,” Darcy agreed, fairly certain that any compound based in the depths of the Carpathians was bound to be suspicious, even without the huge spikes of electricity consumption.

“If the base is abandoned, our plan is to try and get some data off the servers.”

“If there’s anything left,” Darcy added. If the base had been abandoned, surely the first thing that a retreating organisation would’ve done would be to wipe the computers.

Bucky suddenly chimed in. “The electricity usage dropped off last week. They haven’t been gone long, if they’re gone at all.”

Darcy’s eyebrows rose. “You mean that it might still be occupied?”

“We don’t know for certain,” Steve confessed, “We can’t get any satellite imaging.”

“You think they shut down their work because you’ve been hitting other Hydra bases in the area?” She surmised.

“Got it in one,” Barnes said, sounding almost impressed.

Darcy turned to look at him. “Okay, if this place is occupied, I’m _really_ going to need some help with shooting practice.”

Steve laughed, and Barnes almost smiled.

“When are we heading off?”

“Tomorrow,” Steve replied, taking the tablet back from her, “We should be able to cover about half of the journey in one go. We’ll stop in Moldova overnight. Once we hit the Carpathians we may have to move on foot. I’m not sure how impassable the terrain might be for a vehicle, but I don’t think that driving right up to the front door will be an option.”

Darcy didn’t exactly like the thought of walking dozens of miles through the wilderness of the Carpathians, but she feared if she complained she’d be ditched. Or worse: Steve would offer to carry her in a fit of gallantry.

* * *

 

Bucky clearly took her joke about needing to learn how to shoot very seriously, because he approached her that evening after ‘dinner.’

(Yet more MREs. God, did she miss the food at her work.)

Darcy was rather touched to see that he’d set up a make-shift range outside, with a series of cans lined up on a felled tree.

This was the first time they had been alone since their post-coital argument, and the air was heavy with awkwardness.

“What, you mean I don’t get to use you as target practice?” she teased lightly, gesturing at the tin cans.

The edges of Bucky’s lips ticked up. “Didn’t want to risk it…although it might’ve been good incentive for you,” he said, a touch of chagrin in his voice.

She laughed, trying to diffuse a bit of the tension. Frankly, he was right on the money, but she didn’t have the heart to say how angry and hurt she still was. He was making an effort, and so could she.

He reached into one of his holsters and pulled out the gun she had been practicing with the other day.

Darcy reached out to take it by the butt, but Bucky pulled his hand away. “Why’re you willing to risk it? I’ve been a jerk to you.”

She blinked at him. “I don’t think you’re going to shoot me-”

“No. I mean…why’re you offering to help us? You don’t owe me anything.”

Darcy toed at a particularly thick tuft of grass. “Look, our issues aside…Steve told me about your daemon,” she admitted. His jaw clenched, but he didn’t comment. “I’m not saying I understand what you’re going through, but I want to help if I can.”

That sounded too intimate, too compassionate, so she quickly tagged on: “You guys have looked after me when you really didn’t need to,” so that he’d think she was going to the base to help out him _and_ Steve.

It was total misdirection, but she was too raw to lay out how she felt for him if it was going to lead to her getting smacked down again.

Barnes was staring at her a bit too intently. “So, point and shoot, right?” She asked, all but snatching the gun from him.

“Right. First. Unload and reload,” he insisted, crossing his arms over his chest. No fair. How was a girl supposed to concentrate with those biceps flexing just a couple of feet away?

Bucky had spent the better part of two hours the other day teaching her how to assemble, disassemble, clean, and reload a gun. She was pleased and relieved to note that the head-screwing sexy times had not affected her memory, nor the deftness of her fingers.

“Good,” Barnes said approvingly, when she took up position and pulled back the slide. “Lean into it, slightly. Remember to squeeze the trigger gently. Use the sights to line up your shot.”

Darcy nodded absently.

“And mind the brass,” he added, cheekily, right as she pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit the bark of the tree, just a centimetre from the can. She sighed.

“Very close. Just move your hand up a little…” Barnes murmured, suddenly right behind her and moving her taut arms up with a hand on each elbow.

“Now, shoot.”

The middle can flew off the log with a satisfying clang. Darcy couldn’t help but smile.

“I hit it!” she said happily, not moving from her shooting stance, nor even turning her head to look at Barnes.

He was still right behind her. “Course you did. Again.”

Over the course of the next hour, Darcy hit can after can, and Bucky carefully coached her every time she moved backwards a few yards. Her score wasn’t a perfect 100, but she was pretty pleased, if she did say so herself.

“Alright, last one. If we go on any longer your arms will feel like spaghetti tomorrow,” Barnes said, smiling faintly.

She hit the last can from two hundred yards away and cheered. Barnes was right: her arm muscles were already aching, so she flipped the safety and she turned to give him back his gun.

She froze on the spot. He was right there, his face tilted down towards hers so that their lips were only inches away. She could tell from the look in his eyes that he wanted to kiss her.

She turned her head away. “Don’t,” she whispered, sounding pained even to her own ears.

Barnes sighed, but immediately stepped back. “I’m sorry, I…” he rubbed his prosthetic over the back of his neck, looking up at her through his lashes, “I dunno what it is about you. I can’t stop…I haven’t felt like this in a long time, _decades_ , really-”

“Bucky,” she interrupted, holding a hand out to stop him. His confession was too much. “I get it. I mean, I feel the same way, but…I don’t think this is a good idea, and neither do you. You said so yourself.”

Bucky stared at her with those sad blue eyes. She wondered if he was replaying his words to her that awful morning, too.

_‘There’s nothing here for you, that’s what you don’t understand.’_

She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about them, herself. They haunted her, as did the look in his eyes when he said it; like he didn’t believe that he was actually a person capable of real human emotion. It was awful, and she wanted to do anything she could to help him.

She just couldn’t quite admit it after the way he’d treated her. There was still an insecure teenage girl dwelling inside her, and when it came to Barnes, teen-Darcy seemed to be calling the shots.

“Thanks for the lesson,” she said, lamely.

Barnes recovered, gently taking the gun from her. “You’re welcome. You did really well tonight. We’ll keep practicing, though. I don’t know what the Carpathian base is gonna be like, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Darcy swallowed, reluctantly looking him in the eye. It cost him a lot to say that, she could tell. It made her feel warm and fuzzy inside to think that he actually cared if she lived or died.

God, she was pathetic.

“Good night.” She walked into the house and didn’t look back once.

 

~ **Day Six~**

* * *

 

They set off bright and early the next morning. Darcy watched the cottage get smaller and smaller in the wing mirror, and felt strangely morose. She hadn’t exactly had a good few days in that place. Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. She’d had a fine day, a spectacular twenty to thirty minutes and then she’d been confused, rejected, and pretty damn miserable.

Still, she felt a twinge when they turned onto a dirt track and the cottage was gone for good.

_Out of sight, out of mind._

Unfortunately, the man who was responsible for sending her into a mental tailspin was sitting in the back seat, gazing quietly out the window. Darcy couldn’t see him all that well in the reflection without really craning her neck, and she did _not_ want to get caught staring.

“ _I don’t want you to get hurt…there’s nothing here for you…I know you’re thinking that this changes things…”_

The problem with badass superhero road trips was that there was far too much time for sitting about and feeling sorry for oneself. Maybe that was why Barnes always looked down in the dumps, and why Steve had that little crease by the side of his mouth that got more pronounced when he was tired or disappointed. Lack of any form of entertainment, a constant need for vigilance, and limited people with whom to converse were all starting to wear on Darcy, even without the added soulmate drama.

She couldn’t believe how her first five days had panned out. She looked down at her watch: 235:41:08. She was almost half way through her inter-dimensional trip, and what had she achieved?

Okay, yes. She had found her soulmate. That was mission objective number one. Accomplished.

Mission objective number two: stop feeling so down and depressed. Hmm…that was a work in progress. Honestly, she wasn’t battling the ennui she had felt for the past few months, but she wasn’t sure if stomach-churning turmoil was a better option.

Mission objective three: ???

Find Bucky’s daemon? Make soulmate happy? Save world? She had absolutely no idea. It wasn’t like she could make Barnes fall for her and then ride off into the sunset with him. She would be leaving so soon that growing closer to him only to depart seemed incredibly cruel. The guy had already lost his daemon, and his life. He didn’t need to be losing anything else.

_Okay, Mission Objective #3 is find Bucky’s daemon._

Sure. That was totally achievable in nine days and eighteen hours.

* * *

 

Darcy came around as Steve gently shook her arm.

“Hey. We’re stopping for the night,” he said, voice hushed.

She slipped out of the car on ungainly legs. Barring one bathroom stop (the indignity), she hadn’t stretched her legs in ten hours. She knew that Steve was capable of driving for many more hours, but she appreciated him stopping to let her sleep. Her neck ached from the odd angle she’d been leaning her head against the window.

She looked around, noting with dismay the complete lack of shelter. The night air wasn’t freezing by any stretch, but it was cool enough, and the clear sky hinted at the likelihood of morning frost. She stumbled behind Steve, Bucky and Lincoln as they wound their way through a thick treeline; Bucky stopped when they came to a dark little pocket of the forest and began setting out their provisions.

Darcy looked up and saw only darkness- no moon or stars, now. The foliage overhead was so thick that all light was blocked out. She figured there was reason to it when Bucky began expertly assembling a large fire pit. She wriggled her toes in her boots to keep them awake and tried not to stare as the first sparks of fire chased the shadows from his face.

He was too easy to look at.

“Darcy?”

She started, turning to see Steve holding up a sleeping bag and one of his own hoodies.

“Bless you,” she said, taking them both gratefully and studiously ignoring the way Steve glanced between her and Bucky. She didn’t doubt that he knew exactly what was going on; he and Bucky were legendary best friends, after all. Still, she could try to be a little less obvious about how hurt and conflicted she was every time she looked at him.

Tugging on Steve’s hoodie, Darcy laid her sleeping bag down on the ground and wasted no time at all in zipping herself up. The sleeping bag was amazing, some kind of military-grade thing that kept you cosy even if the weather was sub-zero. Thankfully, winter had yet to reach Moldova, and Darcy prayed that the mild weather would continue.

Steve and Bucky were talking quietly on the other side of the fire, but Darcy didn’t bother straining to hear what they were saying. Despite doing virtually nothing all day, she was beat, and sleep was weighing down her eyelids.

It frustrated her that they had spent an entire day in transit; she hadn’t practiced shooting, nor made any notable progress on Mission Objective #3. Worst of all, she hadn’t even spoken to Bucky besides a terse ‘good morning’ as they packed up the car, and that bothered her. It also bothered her that it bothered her. And it bothered her that Bucky had tried to make a move on her the night before when she was shooting, given that _he_ had been the one to freeze her out after they had sex.

She really did not understand him, which was pretty damning considering he was her soulmate. She always figured that your soulmate was the person who _got you_ most in the world. Bucky was unlike anyone she had ever met, in so many ways: his past, his present, his _personality._ She just couldn’t predict what he was going to say or do, and it really threw her off. Most guys she knew were easy enough to get a read on, and most guys she’d ever dated were easy to get to know. Probably because they were just ordinary guys.

Bucky was anything but ordinary. He was… _more_. Full-on and intense in a way Darcy had never experienced before. It irritated her to admit that it both confused and attracted her beyond all reason.

She peeped over at the fire. Bucky’s face looked even more handsome than usual with the warm light washing over it. Steve had obviously gone for a walk or a piss or something, and Bucky was just sitting there all by himself and staring into the flames. The expression on his face was one Darcy had seen on him a couple of times, usually when he thought no one was looking. It was an expression of profound grief, and it twisted Darcy up inside every time she saw it, because she wanted to fix it, and she wanted to comfort him, and she could do neither.

Bucky shifted slightly, and Darcy slammed her eyes shut, her heart hammering at the thought of being caught staring at him. She didn’t know what the expression on _her_ face might be like when she looked at him, but she suspected it was fairly damning, given the sympathetic looks Steve kept shooting at her.

_Go to sleep, you loser._

She decided to take her own sound advice.

 

**~Day Seven~**

* * *

 

 ****“ _Feet_ …” Darcy whined, using up some of her precious air.

“C’mon Darcy, almost there,” Steve encouraged, turning to smile at her over his shoulder.

She huffed. “You said that twenty minutes ago.” Even the sight of Steve’s spectacular ass flexing as he walked uphill was not enough motivation for her.

They had reached the moment that Darcy had dreaded: after another day of driving, they had abandoned the car and were continuing on foot. To her chagrin, Bucky had insisted on finding high ground, which meant hiking up the side of a genuine mountain. Sure, the scenery was probably gorgeous in the daytime, but right now Darcy was focussing on putting one foot in front of the other on the narrow, rock-strewn path, and not falling off the edge.

It didn’t help matters that Bucky was behind her, potentially staring at _her_ ass or rolling his eyes at the fact that she couldn’t walk up a smallish mountain without needing oxygen.

No one had ever accused Darcy of being athletic. Her desk-centred job with SI had not helped matters, and she was finding that exercise in your late twenties was different to exercise in your teens. Everything hurt, and all she wanted to do was lie down.

Still, she was determined to make it to wherever they were setting up camp without requiring assistance. She was _not_ going to let Steve or Bucky carry her, no way. Not even if she had to crawl the last part.

Thankfully, they reached a rather nice little plateau before the final ascent to the top of the mountain, and Steve heaved the pack off his back.

“Are we staying here?” Darcy asked hopefully.

“Yes.”

She immediately swung her sleeping bag off her shoulder and rolled it out nice and far from the edge. She lay down flat on her back and flung an arm over her eyes.

“Everything hurts,” she muttered.

Steve chuckled. “It wasn’t that bad of a climb.”

“Maybe for super soldiers! For ordinary people with short legs, though…”

He laughed again. Bucky was busy scoping out the area for vantage points. They were still five miles from the facility, which was on the far side of another mountain, but she figured it was better to be safe than sorry when it came to Hydra.

“Water?”

“Please,” she sighed, moving her arm and sitting up to get the bottle from him. She glugged it down, spilling a little bit when she looked up and noticed how incredible the sky was.

“Wow! Look at the stars!”

Steve glanced up, smiling. “Yeah, it’s something.” She guessed that he had seen a lot of clear night skies like this whilst on the run, but with his enhanced eyesight it must have looked even more amazing.

Bucky wandered back over to them and she offered him the canteen. He took a swig and sat down next to her, a little closer than she’d expected.

“I’ve never seen the stars like this before,” Darcy said, pushing at her sleeping bag so that she could lie down flat. “Anyone know any astronomy?” She wasn’t playing fair; she suspected that Bucky might know a thing or two, given what Steve had said about his father.

“Go on, Buck. Tell us something,” Steve cajoled, sitting down across from them.

Bucky sighed as if very put upon, but he laid down on his back.

“You see that big V shape right above us?”

Darcy squinted, trying to determine the shape that Bucky was drawing in the air. Her eyesight wasn’t quite super-soldier standard, even with glasses. “It’s on its side, and it has a loop on the end, like this,” he added, tracing a small circle of stars.

“Yeah, yeah I think I’m getting it,” she said. The only constellations she could tell by sight were Orion’s Belt and the Big Dipper. Everything else was a bit of a blur.

“That’s Pisces.”

“Doesn’t look like a fish,” Steve interjected. Darcy couldn’t help but giggle.

“Actually, Pisces is supposedly two fish, end to end. The Romans had a story about Aphrodite and Cupid turning themselves into fish when they were being chased by a giant. They tied themselves together with a piece of string so they wouldn’t be separated.”

Darcy smiled at the hushed tone of Bucky’s voice.

“Awesome. Tell us more, o’ wise one,” she prodded, when he was silent too long. She glanced over at him, and couldn’t help but admire the straight line of his nose and the dark sweep of his lashes.

“Okay, okay. See over here, to the left? See that really bright star?”

Darcy didn’t have to look too far; the star in question was incredibly vibrant against the deep blue of the sky.

“Is that the Dog Star?”

“Nah. This is Herschel’s Garnet Star, one of the brightest in the whole Milky Way. It’s a hundred thousand times brighter than the Sun.”

“Ooh. Is it part of a constellation?”

Bucky shifted a little. “Yeah. It’s part of Cepheus. In Greek mythology he was an Ethiopian King who was married to this really arrogant woman, Cassiopeia. Her constellation is right there,” he explained, tracing a faint ‘W’.

“What made her famously arrogant?” Steve inquired. Darcy was so completely entranced by Bucky that she had momentarily forgotten about Steve lying two feet away.

“Basically, she bragged that she and her daughter were more beautiful than all of Poseidon’s helpers, the Nereids, so Poseidon sent this sea monster to ravage Cepheus’s kingdom…” His voice trailed off for a moment and Darcy saw deep sorrow wash over his face.

“…They sacrificed their daughter to the sea monster. Andromeda,” he finished, his voice wavering slightly as he pointed out the wish-bone like constellation above them.

Darcy bit her lip; she was actually blinking back tears because she knew that all Bucky was thinking about now was his daemon, _his_ Andromeda.

She cleared her throat. “But someone came along and saved her, right?”

Bucky turned his head towards her. His eyes shone brightly with moisture, reflecting a bit of the starry night back at her. “Perseus,” he agreed, with a faint smile, “He saved her.”

 _You’re going to be Perseus,_ she wanted to say. She wanted to grab his hand and twine her fingers through his, but she couldn’t.

“That was really interesting,” she said instead, leaning up on her elbows. She figured Bucky had had enough of story-telling for a while.

“Can’t believe you remember all that astronomy stuff,” Steve added, sitting up and stretching his arms over his head.

Bucky sat up too, shrugging lightly. “My Pa loved astronomy,” he told Darcy, “He worked down at the docks his entire life, hardly ever read a paper or a novel. He just loved the stars and all their stories.”

Darcy grinned at the fondness in his voice, at the fact that he had told her something personal like that.

“I’ve actually never star-gazed before, there was always too much light pollution wherever I lived,” she admitted, holding her hands up towards the fire.

“Where have you lived?” Steve asked.

She smiled lightly. “Nowhere too exotic. I grew up in Pittsburgh, then I went to NYU and when I graduated, I just stayed in the City and worked for a few years. I lived in Alberta for a few months, before I took the job with Stark Industries.”

Bucky posed the next question, much to her surprise. Her life sounded so small and boring when she laid it out like that. Barring a Spring Break in Cabo, she had never left the continental US. “How come Alberta?”

“My Dad lives there. He moved while I was in college. He’s big on the outdoors and he has a lot of family up there.”

Bucky and Steve shared a subtle look, but she caught it and answered their unspoken question. “My Mom died eight years ago in a car crash. That’s why my Dad moved.”

“Sorry to hear that, Darcy,” Steve said, with the amount of sincerity that most people could never muster.

She shrugged, staring at her boots so she didn’t have to look at him or Bucky.

“Thanks. It was awful for the first few years, but it’s not so hard anymore,” she admitted, “Except for birthdays or holidays, then it sucks.”

They all sat in silence for a moment; she knew that Bucky and Steve had to be orphans now by dint of their age, so they understood what losing a parent was like.

“On to less morose topics. Do you guys have Thanksgivings plans?” She smiled a little cheekily, well aware that they would probably be too busy hitting Hydra bases or running from Interpol to have a sit-down dinner.

They both chuckled. It was a nice sound.

“Yeah, I think we’ll steal back to Brooklyn in a freighter and crash some poor, unsuspecting family’s Thanksgiving meal. I just hope we get to have some pecan pie before the police bust down the door and arrest us for terrorism or something,” Bucky said, with a self-deprecating smirk.

“You’re welcome to join us, of course,” Steve added with a grin.

Darcy waved a hand, smiling. “Thanks, but I won’t be here by then.”

“What?” Came out in stereo.

Oh. Oops.

“Um…”

Bucky was sitting bolt upright, his eyes wide and fixed on her.

“What do you mean you won’t be here?” Steve clarified, his brow furrowed.

Darcy sighed, tipping her head back to look at the stars. She really hadn’t intended to tell them about her inevitable departure, certainly not when they’d been having such a nice, comradery filled evening.

“I didn’t want to say anything, but you know how my friend’s mom sent me here with magic?” They both nodded tensely. “Well, it was a limited-time only kind of thing. I’m here for two weeks. Well-” She pushed up her sleeve and checked her watch. “-Two hundred hours, thirty-eight minutes and four seconds to be precise. It was two weeks from the minute I landed.”

Silence.

Darcy glanced between them. Steve looked shocked, and sad, which was pretty gratifying.

Barnes was completely expressionless. Like someone had flipped the ‘off’ switch for his emotions. It was unsettling, to say the least.

She flushed with guilt as the silence dragged on. It hadn’t occurred to her that this might be a big deal to them. Sure, Steve was lovely and friendly towards her, but he had a lot on his plate, not least the fact that he was a fugitive from international law. Bucky…well, Bucky was a tricky one. He blew hot and cold, and in all truth Darcy couldn’t parse how he really felt about her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I just…didn’t think it’d matter.” The last syllable was scarcely out of her mouth before Bucky stood up and walked briskly down the little path they had ambled up less than an hour before.

Darcy felt like she had spent half of her time in this dimension watching Bucky run away from her.

Steve sighed, watching his best friend storm off. He knew perfectly well that Bucky was smitten with Darcy, even if the man hadn’t admitted it to himself. The idea of Darcy disappearing and never returning was obviously overwhelming for him.

“Of course it matters, Darcy,” Steve said, turning to smile at her, “We’re really going to miss you.”

Darcy felt her cheeks warm a little at his words. “We’ve only known each other for five days,” she said, trying to downplay the whole thing. They obviously weren’t going to discuss Bucky’s abrupt departure, and she was honestly fine with that.

Steve quirked one of his eyebrows. “You saying you aren’t going to miss me? I’m hurt,” he teased, clutching at his heart with one hand and flashing her that shit-eating grin that she had come to know rather well. She had only spoken to the Steve Rogers in her world whenever work required it. She wondered if he had the same sense of humour as this Steve, dry and sarcastic in a way that most people wouldn’t expect of Captain America.

Darcy sighed, smiling as she punched him lightly on the arm. She immediately regretted it; it was like lightly punching a brick wall. “Of course I’ll miss you,” she said, shaking out her stiff knuckles.

She glanced down at where Bucky had been lying next to her a few minutes ago.

“Steve, how long have you two been at it?”

“Huh?”

“You know…on the run. Looking for his daemon,” she clarified, feeling like she didn’t even have a right to ask.

That tense little groove appeared by the corner of Steve’s mouth. “Just over two years.”

 _God._ It was even worse than she had imagined. _Two years_. Doing this: running across the globe, avoiding the various government agencies that were hunting you, and desperately searching for a vital piece of yourself. Poor Bucky. Poor Steve.

“Woah.”

Steve chuckled humourlessly. “Yeah. We started off in Siberia, spent almost a year combing through every former KGB base we could find, then we drifted south, skirted through Mongolia and then out west right through the former USSR to Ukraine, where you found us.”

Darcy was gobsmacked. They had covered thousands and thousands of miles with absolutely no success, and they were still going strong.

“That’s a lot of ground for two people to cover. Even two super-soldiers.”

He smiled lightly. “We have a little bit of help, but because of the Accords we all have to lay low. It really slows things down.”

“I’ll bet,” Darcy murmured. The more she learned about Bucky’s situation, the more she understood the way he behaved. It didn’t excuse his cold, borderline cruel dismissal of her after they slept together, but it certainly explained why he was trying to keep her at arm’s length. Life hadn’t exactly been kind to him thus far, and she supposed that he just expected more disappointment.

She jumped slightly when Steve laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s a good thing we’ve got you to help us. I really think this next base is going to be the one that points us in the right direction.”

Darcy smiled at the warmth and optimism in his voice. She reached up and laid her hand over his for a second. She was going to miss him, almost as much as she was going to miss Bucky.

“Should we go and look for him?” she asked softly, looking at the pathway. It was dark and treacherous, maybe even dangerous for a super-soldier.

Steve sighed, squeezing her shoulder before releasing it. “Nah. He’ll be fine. Sometimes he really needs a bit of time by himself.”

Darcy bit her lip but nodded. Steve knew him better than she did.

“Hey, will you tell me a story?” She sounded like a little kid asking for a bedtime story, but she didn’t care.

Steve grinned. “What kind of story?”

She shrugged. “One about you and Bucky? When you were younger.”

He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Okay, got a lot of those. So, once upon a time, I was getting beaten up in this alley in Red Hook…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did research with the help of some of my astronomy books, so the stars that the guys see should be genuinely be visible in northeastern Romania in late October. I love that fic writing always takes you down so many different paths of inquiry :)
> 
> Once again, thank you for the feedback! It is greatly appreciated :)


	5. Chapter 5

**~Day Eight~**

* * *

 

Darcy was shaking with nerves. Literally, her hands were quivering and her teeth were chattering lightly, which was bizarre because it wasn’t even that cold.

She figured it was justified. After all, this was her first ‘mission’, and she was hardly what you’d call field ready.

After much discussion, Steve and Bucky had decided to take her straight into the base with them. Bucky had argued vehemently against it, but when Steve had pointed out that the alternative was leaving her all by herself _outside_ the base, he quickly changed his mind.

They had moved their little camp as close to the base as they dared that morning. Bucky had done surveillance on the facility all day, lying flat on his stomach and watching through the scope of his rifle for hours. Darcy had no clue how anyone could have that much patience and discipline. She was bored and antsy just watching him.

So far as Bucky could judge, the base was minimally staffed. If it had once been a hiving Hydra base, they had since scaled back its operations. That didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. As Steve warned her, fighting your way _into_ an unfamiliar complex was ten times harder than defending yourself from intruders. On this occasion, Steve didn’t even have satellite imaging, just a dated looking blue print that could be more misleading than helpful.

Still, if Captain America and the Winter Soldier were worried, they were putting on a good show.

“OK, Bucky, Darcy, you two take the west side. There’s a fire escape on the north -west corner, second floor. Security should be minimal. We’ll take the main entrance,” Steve explained, the blueprint image on the tablet between them all.

By ‘we’, Darcy knew that he meant himself and Lincoln. Darcy had noticed during her last sojourn in this dimension that most people referred to their daemon separately, despite the fact that they were technically one entity.

She swallowed thickly and nodded. She had been looking at the blue print for hours that afternoon, trying to memorise something that might actually make her useful, but she wasn’t sure any of it had gone in.

Steve nodded confidently at her, and his support warmed her. Bucky was staring intently at the tablet, his icy blue eyes narrowed in concentration. He looked sharp and dangerous and every inch the weapon Hydra had carved him into over seven decades.

The bonus of infiltrating a base deep in the Carpathians was that Hydra hadn’t bothered with any fancy force-fields or hundred-feet brick walls. The base was surrounded by a simple chain-link fence with coils of vicious-looking barbed wire at the top. Thankfully, after skirting the perimeter they found a small hole in part of the fence that backed onto a thickly wooded area. In the twilight it was unlikely that anyone in the facility would be able to see them.

As they crept along the large expanse of grass, Steve gestured to the two of them before heading off to the left, Lincoln loping quietly after him.

It was just her and Bucky, now. He was poised for a fight, carefully using the scope on his rifle to check for heat signatures and movement in the shadows of the building. Darcy followed him, nervously gripping the gun that she had practiced with a grand total of three times. A large bowie knife was strapped to her upper thigh, on Bucky’s insistence. She hoped she didn’t have to use either weapon.

“Clear,” Bucky murmured softly, touching the comm tucked discreetly in his ear. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and turned to look at her expectantly.

She resisted the urge to fling her hands out in silent question. He looked pointedly up, and she followed his gaze.

_Ah._

That was the first floor. Damn. No fire escape ladders. It was at least ten feet off the ground. How the hell were they meant to get up there?

There was a little balcony-type thing with metal fencing, but without a trampoline she had no hope of being able to reach it.

Bucky cleared his throat, pulling her out of her panicked thoughts. He gestured to the spot right in front of his feet. Frowning, Darcy walked over and stood in front of him. She held back an indignant squawk when he grabbed her shoulders and turned her so that she was facing away from him.

“I’m going to lift you up high enough to reach the bars, and then you need to pull yourself up, okay?” His lips were right at her ear, so close that his breath was tickling her.

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She holstered the gun, figuring that shooting him or herself would be especially unfortunate.

Without much warning, Bucky’s big hands grabbed onto her hips and lifted straight up over his head. Darcy flailed for a moment, panicking until he balanced her feet on his shoulders. She fumbled, stretching up until she could grip the base of the metal platform. Once she had steadied, Bucky carefully moved his hands down to her lower calves and pushed her up until his arms were straight over his head.

If she hadn’t been so terrified of falling, she would’ve been impressed at the effortless show of strength.

The extra few inches meant that she could grip onto the horizontal bars, and carefully bring up one leg, then the other until she was climbing them like a ladder.

She swung her leg over the top and gracelessly slid down the other side. She peeped over the edge, looking for Bucky. He was several yards away from the building, and he suddenly broke into a run, leaping up and grabbing one of the bars with his left hand, he swung himself onto the platform next to her in a matter of seconds.

Darcy stared at him, her mouth hanging open. He smirked lightly, touching her chin with his right hand before turning his attention to the fire door. The lock was picked in seconds and he slipped an arm through the gap, disabling the alarm.

He opened the door by a couple of feet and swung his rifle back into his hands, edging inside the building. Darcy knew to stay outside until he said otherwise.

After a few seconds, he appeared in the doorway. “Clear,” he told her, his face once again focussed and carefully blank.

She followed him in. They were in a dark hallway that smelled clinical. Not quite like a hospital, but more like a laboratory. Obsessively clean and overlaid with a scent of industrial strength cleaner.

“We’re in,” Bucky spoke softly into the comm. “Roger that.”

He slowly advanced down the hallway. Darcy followed, doing her best to walk quietly.

They reached the end of the corridor. There was a large, glass-fronted laboratory door in front of them. Darcy recalled from the blueprint that it was the second largest lab in the building. The door was secured by a pin pad, but it was no deterrent for Bucky, who took a small, phone-sized device from his pocket and scanned the pin pad. The glass screen of the device highlighted the most frequently pressed numbers in blue. The first two numbers were easy enough to suss out, but Darcy noticed that Bucky briefly hesitated before selecting the order of the final two.

Thankfully, his guess was right and the door released with a small puff of air. Stowing the device, Bucky signalled for her wait as he entered the lab. His shoulders were taut with focus, the rifle poised for attack.

Almost immediately he gestured for her to come in. The lab was clearly abandoned, with paperwork scattered everywhere and smashed computers. Darcy sighed after inspecting them: all of the hard drives were gone, bar one. She quickly hacked into the system, trying not to let Bucky’s presence distract her. He was simultaneously watching the door and the windows, whilst leafing through some of the discarded papers.

After several stressful minutes, she managed to hack through the system’s security. She wasn’t expecting to find much, given the state of the lab, but she was nonetheless disappointed when only one file appeared.

_BOLVANGAR_

She had no idea what that meant, and the file clearly had no intention of giving her any information. It was completely empty. She had no idea why the file name had been left there on the server, but any documents that it had once held were long gone.

“Anything?” She started at the soft sound of Bucky’s voice. His expression was heavy with familiar disappointment.

Darcy shook her head, but gestured for him to join her. He peered over her shoulder, eyebrows furrowed.

“BOLVANGAR,” he murmured, sounding the word out slowly.

“Is it an acronym?” she asked, very conscious of how close their faces were.

Bucky sighed. “No idea. Is that it?”

She nodded.

“Okay, let’s move on,” he said, leading the way to the exit. “Lab two clear,” he informed Steve over the comm.

Darcy kind of wished that she had a comm, too. She wanted to know that Steve and Lincoln were okay, but she didn’t want to pester Bucky to relay every single response.

They worked their way methodically through the base, checking every office and lab that they came across. Every computer they encountered had been wiped or smashed to pieces. Every time they turned a corner Darcy’s heart jumped into her throat, certain that they were about to come up against a wall of armed Hydra goons.

It never happened.

Because all of the Hydra goons they encountered were dead. There were about six of them, lying in various alarming shapes on the floor of the main corridor.

Bucky swore when he saw them. Darcy tried very hard not to puke, and averted her eyes as Bucky inspected each of them.

“All dead,” he muttered with disgust, tossing the last body back to the ground. He pressed the comm in his ear.

“We have a situation. Main corridor. Six dead Hydra agents.” He paced back and forth, his body tense with agitation.

Steve obviously said something in response. “I have no idea. Yeah. Roger that.”

Bucky glanced around, looking at her as if he had forgotten she was there. “Steve’s going to come to us. This is…bizarre.”

Darcy nodded, still refusing to look in the direction of the corpses. Clearly, Steve and Lincoln hadn’t killed them, which meant that there was someone else in the building. It wasn’t a comforting thought, even if said someone clearly wasn’t on Hydra’s side.

Steve was with them in a matter of minutes, looking as pristine as when they had left him. Lincoln slowly inspected each of the bodies.

“Four of them definitely poisoned themselves,” Bucky said, “Cyanide.”

“Classic Hydra,” Steve replied, exasperated.

“Why would they kill themselves?” Darcy asked, shakily.

Steve looked at her, almost pityingly. Unlike the two of them, she wasn’t used to death and she wasn’t able to hide that fact.

“To avoid interrogation.”

She shook her head. “I get that. I mean…who were they trying to avoid being interrogated _by?”_

“They may have picked us up on security cameras and panicked,” Steve said slowly, though he didn’t sound convinced.

“Why are they all out here, though? In the hall? It looks like there was some sort of skirmish.”

Bucky nodded thoughtfully. “No bullet casings, though. Couple of standard issue knives on the floor, but there’s no blood on them.”

Steve was now pacing up and down the hall, looking between the bodies and the main doors. “So someone came in, the agents engaged them, but with no success. At least four of the agents decide to kill themselves rather than face whoever it was.”

They all stood in silence for a few minutes.

“We need to find that someone,” Bucky said, speaking what was on all of their minds.

Darcy felt nauseated. She really didn’t fancy the idea of meeting someone who potentially terrified four Hydra agents to death.

“Are they…recently dead?” she asked.

Bucky nodded. “Less than an hour, I’d guess.” Darcy appreciated that he didn’t go into detail about how he knew that.

“How long have we been here?”

Steve didn’t even need to check his watch. “Thirty-two minutes.”

So scary person/people had been in the building at the same time as them. Darcy shuddered. It was like being inside a horror movie.

The four of them headed into the main body of the building, coming through the areas that they hadn’t covered yet. They came across a couple of scientists tied up in one of the storage rooms, but both of them were unconscious, not dead.

Darcy didn’t think she had ever been so nervous in all her life; not even the presence of Captain America and Bucky Barnes, plus Cap’s lion daemon, were enough to calm her down. Her heart was beating a rapid tattoo in her chest as they cautiously worked through the base.

When Steve suddenly stopped dead in the corridor, Darcy almost walked right into him. A door stood ajar a couple of yards ahead. He held up his hand for quiet, tilting his head slightly as if he were trying to hear something. Darcy stayed stock still, trying to keep her breathing as quiet as possible.

With a frown, Steve gestured for them to move forward, and they advanced towards the open door.

Darcy could hear the blood pumping in her ears, loud and intrusive, as she crossed the threshold on Steve’s heels. The room was only partially illuminated. It had clearly been the main IT department, because it was full of the remains of computers on rows and rows of desks.

“Took you long enough,” a voice drawled. Darcy tensed, feeling Bucky’s heavy presence at her back. She gripped the butt of her gun, but she couldn’t see who had spoken.

A chair swivelled round at the far end of the room and Steve dropped his shield with a clang.

The woman who rose from the chair was movie star gorgeous, with a figure like an hourglass and flaming red hair that Darcy suspected didn’t come from a bottle. In her peripherals she saw Bucky lowering his rifle.

A large, gloriously-coated snow leopard with ice-blue eyes unfurled itself from the spot by the woman’s feet and prowled towards Lincoln. The pair sized each other up for a split second before delicately touching noses. A deep purr sounded from Lincoln’s chest, but the leopard remained cool and silent, even as it nuzzled the lion’s mane.

Darcy glanced at Steve and had to suppress a grin. His face was lit up with wonderment, a strong blush tinting his cheekbones.

So _this_ was the woman.

“Natasha. You’re here,” Steve breathed. Oh yep; this was the famous Black Widow. The black catsuit and red hair should’ve been a dead giveaway. Darcy suspected that if she and Bucky hadn’t been in the room, Steve and the Black Widow would’ve already been undressing each other.

“Well observed,” Natasha replied with a glint in her green eyes as she approached them. Her voice was throaty, but despite the sarcastic words it was also full of warmth.

Apparently, Steve’s feelings were not unrequited.

Bucky cleared his throat. “What are you doing here?” He didn’t sound nearly as fond of Natasha as Steve did. A green, envious part of Darcy was glad of that.

Natasha’s eyes reluctantly left Steve for Bucky. “Helping you, of course,” she replied neutrally. Her attention fell on Darcy for a moment, flicking back to Bucky with a slight hint of amusement and interest. Darcy felt her cheeks warm with a blush; Black Widow’s gaze was like a damn x-ray, capable of seeing more than your average person’s.

“How’s that?” Bucky countered.

Natasha tilted her head. “Well, let’s see. I cut the hole in the wire fence, I got rid of the Hydra infestation down the hall, and I managed to salvage some data from the servers,” she said, a little smugly. Darcy couldn’t exactly blame her; she had achieved all that they had aimed to, and she had done it by herself.

“What did you find?” Steve asked, seemingly recovered from his moonstruck reaction to Natasha.

Natasha pulled a slimline tablet from the belt at her hips. She tapped the screen a few times before turning it round to face the three of them. It was a hand-drawn map, one with minimal detail. It actually reminded Darcy quite a bit of the maps in _Lord of the Rings_ ; the scrawling, inky labels and the little peaks denoting mountains. It could’ve been just about anywhere in the world.

“Where is that?” Steve asked.

“I’m not sure of the name,” Natasha confessed, “But I do know that it’s somewhere in Latvia.”

Bucky was frowning. “How do you know that?”

“Because I also have _this_ ,” she said, walking back over to the desk and lifting up a large, dog-eared file that she handed to Steve.

Darcy glimpsed the words **спроецировать Зевс** on the yellowing cover page. She suspected that it was Russian, but she had never learned the language.

“Where did you get this?” he asked.

Natasha shrugged delicately. “Called in a favour.”

Steve shook his head, smiling. “Do you have favours owed all over the world?”

“Pretty much.”

Darcy felt Bucky shift behind her, and she turned to look at him. He was staring at the file in Steve’s hands the way an arachnophobe might stare at a spider. “What is it?” He directed the question at Steve, but Natasha answered.

“Information on Hydra’s collaboration with a Dr Voldemārs Vanags, a specialist in daemonology. Project Zeus ran from 1949 to 1967 when Dr Vanags did the world a huge favour and died of a heart attack, taking most of his research and expertise with him.”

“Project _Zeus_?” Darcy echoed. Between Hydra and Bucky’s astronomy tales the other night, she felt like Greek mythology was cropping up everywhere.

The weight of Natasha’s emerald gaze fell on her again. “Zeus was a fairly prolific deity- it could refer to any number of myths. From what I can glean in the file…their primary research was something called _incision_ -” Here she glanced warily at Bucky, “-The separation of human and daemon.”

Lincoln growled, circling back to press against Steve’s legs. Steve, for his part, paled significantly, shutting the file with a small snap of pages.

Darcy looked up at Bucky, but his expression was unreadable. She had figured that it was fairly obvious that Hydra had separated him and Andromeda- how else could he have been away from her for so long?

“What kind of separation?” Steve asked, sounding like he suspected the answer but couldn’t quite face up to it.

Natasha’s fingers twined in the thick fur of her daemon’s shoulders. “The permanent kind.”

_Oh shit._

Darcy got it, now. Steve had said that Hydra had _damaged_ the bond between Bucky and Andromeda. From the painful silence in the room, it was clear that neither of them had ever considered that Hydra could’ve _destroyed_ the bond all together.

* * *

 

They made it back their makeshift camp about an hour later. Natasha had informed them that she’d combed through the entire base before they even arrived, and there was nothing worth hanging around for.

For her part, Darcy was relieved. The adrenaline had left her system in a great wave, and she was completely exhausted. It had been a long day.

Natasha and Steve excused themselves after getting a drink of water, both vanishing into the depths of the forest with their daemons in tow. Darcy wasn’t sure if they were discussing Avengers business or if they were doing something else entirely.

Bucky was seated a few feet from her, his back to a large tree trunk and his eyes closed. He wasn’t moving, but Darcy suspected that he wasn’t asleep. After Natasha’s revelation that afternoon, she had expected him to run off for some solitude. He did seem to do it a lot.

She didn’t know what to say to him, so she was grateful that he was playing dead possum.

After about ten minutes of doing absolutely nothing but try not to stare at Bucky, Darcy muttered about going to the bathroom and walked further into the trees. She didn’t want to go too far, even with the gun at her hip. The mission had set her nerves on edge and she couldn’t stop herself from anxiously looking around as she did her business.

The woodland was very quiet, with only a faint whisper of the wind weaving through the trees. It was a beautiful place, even in late fall, and Darcy found herself smiling at how exotic her travels had become. Maybe she should buy one of those scratch off maps, now that she’d been somewhere outside the US?

She shook her head, smirking at her own silliness.

A faint groaning sound made her ears prick up, and she tensed with sudden fear. Was that Bucky? Had there been more goons at the Hydra base? Ones they had missed and who had followed them back?

She pulled Bucky’s gun from the holster and crept forward, keeping her thumb hovering over the safety. Fear had muddled her slightly, and she couldn’t tell if she was going towards camp or away from it.

Tiptoing quietly, she edged closer to where she thought the sound had come from. Another pained groan punctuated the air and Darcy felt her stomach twist as she peered around an enormous tree trunk-

And almost burst out laughing at her own idiocy.

A couple of hundred yards away Steve was bracing Natasha up against a tree, her long bare legs wrapped around his hips. Thankfully, they had only managed to pull Steve’s combat suit down to his waist, so Darcy didn’t get an eyeful. They were each gripping the other tightly, their lips fused together in a desperate will-I-ever-see-you-again kiss. Darcy felt a deep throb of sadness that concealed her embarrassment at discovering them like this…for a few seconds.

She quickly and quietly backed away, noting with a small smile that their two daemons were honest-to-god cuddling on the ground.

She was so glad that Steve had someone, and someone who appeared to return his affections.

It took her quite a few minutes to suss out where she was going, but she eventually arrived back at the camp.

Bucky was still leaning against the tree, completely oblivious to her.

“What took you so long?”

Or not.

She grimaced as Bucky’s eyes slid open, looking at her with disapproval.

Darcy sat down cross-legged on the grass and shrugged. “Got turned around. Lots of trees here,” she replied lightly, pulling up a few blades of grass and trying to conceal the amusement she felt at what she’d just seen Captain America get up to.

“You saw them, didn’t you?”

“Who?”

Bucky shot her that ‘don’t be stupid’ expression that she was kind of getting sick of.

“Oh. Uh, yeah.” She thought about it for a moment, and stared at him incredulously. “Wait. You can hear them?”

Bucky nodded.

“Oh…” She wondered how many times he had overheard her talking to Steve about him. Oops. “Maybe you shouldn’t eavesdrop.”

“They were talking about me,” he replied baldly.

Darcy’s eyebrows rose. “What, during…?”

He grimaced. “No. Before.”

“What were they saying?” She ventured.

Bucky rested his arms on his knees. “Nothing good.” He looked tired and weary, as if the weight of the world was pushing his shoulders down like that.

Darcy plucked a few more tufts of grass, opening and closing her mouth a few times as she debated what to say. She looked up to see Bucky watching her expectantly.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wanting to leave it at that, but his raised eyebrows urged her on. “About the… Project Zeus, thing? I-”

“Don’t,” Bucky retorted, rising smoothly to his feet. “I don’t want your pity.” His eyes were cold and dark as he looked at her. It felt like a slap in the face.

She scrambled gracelessly to her feet and walking towards him. “It’s not pity. _It’s not_.”

Bucky shrugged her words off and turned away, but she wasn’t going to let him run this time. Not after what had happened that day. She reached out and grabbed his arm, knowing full well that she couldn’t stop him unless he _allowed_ her to.

“Bucky, don’t run off. Talk to me,” she pleaded, not in the least bit embarrassed by how desperate she sounded.

She knew that the news on Dr Vanags’s work had opened up an entirely new realm of terrifying possibilities for Bucky, and she found herself frightened of what he might do. He had been so calm since they had returned from the base, brushing off Steve’s repeated attempts to engage him and sitting calmly at that tree trunk like he didn’t have a care in the world.

It was an eerie sort of calm, one that had immediately set Darcy on alert. Now he was trying to slink off while Steve and Natasha were otherwise engaged, and she wasn’t having it.

“Get off,” he said, gruffly, glowering at her.

“Just, talk to me-”

“Why?” He snapped, turning his anger onto her with just one syllable.

Darcy recoiled, but didn’t release his arm. “Because, I want to help-”

“Help? How is talking to you going to help?”

She didn’t need to hold onto him any more because suddenly Bucky was rounding on her, advancing so that he could tower over her.

Maybe pissing off the Winter Soldier was a bad idea, and _maybe_ she should’ve been scared, but she wasn’t. She knew that Bucky was hurt, and that he was lashing out, but she also _knew_ that he wouldn’t hurt her. She was _not_ going to take a single step back.

“I don’t know, exactly. But why don’t you try it for a change? Instead of always running away from me any time something bothers you?” She retorted, getting up in his face. He was angry? Well, she could be angry, too. She had tried to be understanding of what he’d gone through, tried to understand his fluctuating moods and his penchant for running away. At this point, she’d about had it.

He laughed, mirthlessly. “I’m running away? You’re the one running back to another dimension just so you don’t have to deal with me!” His voice had risen as he spoke until he was shouting the last few words at her. It was hard not to recoil in the face of his anger, but under the current of rage she also heard a deep echo of fear that tugged at her heartstrings.

She tried to speak soothingly. “Bucky, what are you talking about? I’m not leaving because I want to get away from you. I’m leaving because I _have to_.”

Bucky looked away hotly, tension visible in the set of his jaw. “So you said. But I don’t believe you,” he replied, finally wrenching his arm out of her grasp and stepping back. “You came here looking for some fairytale with your soulmate, and instead you found me. Of course you’re running… I don’t blame you.”  He visibly deflated, like all the fight had left his body. 

Darcy swallowed. It had been easy to match his anger with anger, but in the face of his self-deprecation she just fell apart. “Bucky, that is _not true_. I swear, I’m not disappointed that I found _you._ ”

Bucky shook his head slowly, looking anywhere but at her. “You’re too good for me. You’d be better off with someone like Steve. Someone who’s clean and…whole,” he said, his voice breaking on the last word.

Darcy teared up, because she knew that he wasn’t bullshitting her or trying to tell her that he wasn’t interested. He really thought he was bad for her. He thought that there was someone out there more suited to her than him, that she deserved _better._

He didn’t get it at all. He didn’t understand what being a soulmate even meant.

So it was up to her to show him.

“I don’t want someone like Steve,” she replied, digging her nails into the palms of her hands to keep her voice steady. “I don’t want clean, and whole...I just want you.”

Bucky looked up at her in shock, and she smiled softly, gently reaching out for his hand. She was gratified when he didn’t pull away, allowing her to slot her fingers through his. She knew that touching could be difficult for him.

She moved closer to him, until they were almost toe to toe and she was looking up into his solemn blue eyes. “You’re my soulmate. That means that there isn’t anyone in the _world_ \- actually, scratch that- there isn’t anyone in the universe, in _all_ of the dimensions that exist, who is better for me than you are. I am not running away from you, now or ever. Okay?”

He stared at her for a drawn-out moment, and she willed him to believe her. His eyes dropped slightly, and he nodded, his hair falling forward over his face. “Okay.”

Darcy smiled softly, reaching up to tuck the hair behind his ears. It was as soft and silky as she remembered, and she felt herself blush as she remembered the last time she had touched it.

It had only been four days prior, but it felt like a life time since he had pinned her to the wall in that little cottage and made her see stars.

She ran her fingertips to the ends of his hair, where it brushed against the collar of his tac jacket, reluctant to stop touching him. She started slightly when he grasped each of her wrists, tenderly stroking the fine bones with his thumbs before placing her hands on his shoulders.

Darcy took it for the invitation it was, pushing up on her toes right as he tipped his head down, their lips meeting in a desperate crash of heat and passion.

 _Jesus._ She had forgotten how right it felt to kiss him, to touch him, to feel his big hands holding her tight against his body.

It was like drinking hot chocolate on a cold, wintery day. Like stepping into an air- conditioned room after hours in blistering heat. Like water after the desert.

A faint snickering sound forced them to part, reluctantly.

Darcy turned her head to find Steve and Natasha watching them with amusement.

“We leave you two alone for thirty minutes…” Steve teased, a wide smirk on his face.

One of Bucky’s hands was still on her ass, so it was hard to focus. “Zip it, Cap. I saw the two of you defiling that oak tree,” Darcy retorted, her hands still in Bucky’s hair. Steve’s face turned violently red.

Natasha merely sauntered past them and perched by the fire. “Actually, it was a birch,” she replied archly, looking very smug. Darcy couldn’t exactly blame her.

Bucky snorted quietly, rolling his eyes. Darcy smiled at him, pressing a lingering kiss to his lips before slowly stepping back. She hadn’t wanted to jump away from him the second Steve and Natasha made themselves known in case he read it wrong, but she wasn’t one for PDAs.

After some more light ribbing, Steve returned to his natural hue and began dishing out MRIs. They all sat by the fire as the sky turned dark, and as Darcy looked around she felt a strange stirring of emotion that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

Bucky fetched her a bottle of water and sat right next to her on the ground.

When he discreetly threaded his fingers through hers, Darcy realised that it felt like the beginnings of hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the big delay on this chapter! University has just started back, and the beginning of the semester is always incredibly busy :)
> 
> Again, thanks for the feedback!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~I can't believe it's been over two months since I updated this fic...~~

~ **Day Nine~**

* * *

 

Darcy woke up hot and sweaty, wondering who had left the heating on full blast over-night. It was stifling in her room, and she just needed to push off the covers…

“Ow,” a man’s voice muttered alarmingly close to her ear. Darcy’s eyes flew open and she attempted to sit up, almost bruising herself on the iron-hard arm around her waist.

“Darcy, what’s wrong?” Bucky asked, his brow scrunched with sleepiness and confusion. From the lilac light of pre-dawn, she could see that his hair was all over the place and he looked absolutely adorable.

She had dreamt that she was home. Her actual home, where she had grown up with her Mom and Dad. It was strange; Darcy rarely dreamed vividly, but that had been…well, it was as if she was there, under the bright purple duvet, posters of Johnny Depp and 30 Seconds to Mars staring down at her.

“Um, I’m fine. Sorry I kicked you,” she murmured, mindful that Steve and Natasha were probably nearby. Bucky held her a little tighter; the night before they had unzipped their sleeping bags to create a double. Bucky was a snuggler, and Darcy was more than okay with that, even with the sweaty awakening.

She twisted herself around in his arms until she was facing him. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” he whispered, ignoring all the rules about morning breath and kissing her square on the lips.

Darcy squirmed a little as Bucky’s high body temperature started to warm her up even more. It was like cuddling up to a giant hot-water bottle.

He raised his eyebrow in question.

“You’re insanely hot,” she muttered, reaching up to push a strand of hair off her damp forehead.

“Back atcha,” he replied, with a hint of the swagger for which he had once been famed.

Darcy laughed softly. “Um, thanks. I actually meant your temperature-”

Bucky smirked. “Ouch. Way to crush my ego.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re hot in the good-looking way, too. Obviously.”

He was enjoying her clumsy attempts at complimenting him. “Obviously?”

“Yes. Obviously I think you’re hot or the thing that happened in the cottage wouldn’t have happened.”

“What thing was that?” Natasha’s voice piped up from a few feet away.

Darcy blushed, and Bucky growled something that may have been Russian. Natasha just laughed in response.

_Damn super soldier-spies. No privacy._

* * *

 

They set off early that morning. Time was of the essence; Natasha didn’t trust her contact not to provide information to Hydra, and if they figured out where Bucky and Steve were headed, it would be game over.

They walked for over an hour before they found an old church that was filled with tourists. When Mass started, Natasha had crept out from the treeline and hot-wired a nice 4x4. Hoping that the liturgy would stop anyone in the chapel from hearing the engine turn over, Steve, Bucky and Darcy dashed to the vehicle and leapt in right as Natasha pulled out in a cloud of dust.

Hopefully whoever owned the car could catch a ride on one of the tour buses.

By late afternoon, they had left Romania and were back in Ukraine, cutting through west and heading north towards Belarus. Darcy wished she had paid more attention in European history classes, because most of the names blurred into one. Not that it mattered really, she wasn’t driving. All she had to do was stare out the windows at the nice, empty scenery, and keep an eye out for any witnesses or people lurking about. They weren’t exactly a conspicuous group, but fortunately the only human being they saw that afternoon was an aged shepherd, who scarcely even glanced in their direction.

Bucky sat next to her in the back, leafing through the Project Zeus file. By the time they stopped for the night, the grooves in his forehead looked like they might be permanent.

“Is it bad?” Darcy asked quietly when they were alone. She knew that Natasha had probably read the file, and Steve had at least skimmed it, but she was more concerned about how Bucky felt than what was actually written in the file.

Bucky’s eyes flickered over the hers. They shone in the firelight, and Darcy felt her heart clench at the look of vulnerability on his face. “Yeah. It’s pretty fuckin’ bad,” he replied, running his open palm over his mouth and chin.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Darcy assured him. A warm smile bloomed on his face.

“C’mere,” he gestured for her to sit with him by the fire. Darcy knew it was stupid, but she felt slightly anxious as she walked over to him. They were _doing this._ They were actually acting like a couple, yet nothing about their soulmate status had been said after that disastrous showdown in the cottage.

She sat right next to him, their arms pressing together. Bucky sat with his elbows resting on his knees and Darcy found herself unconsciously copying his pose.

“The file isn’t about me, exactly. It’s about daemons and how they work,” Bucky explained, his eyes slipping between her and the fire. “What do you know about daemons?”

“Um. That everyone in this world is supposed to have one, and that they take the form of an animal. Steve said the animal reflects who the person is on the inside.”

Bucky smiled. “Yeah, that’s about right. Did you know that daemons can change?”

Darcy nodded. She had done a bit of research on her last trip to this dimension. Daemons were fascinating, especially to someone who didn’t have one. “Yeah, when you’re kids, right?”

“Exactly. But then you hit puberty, and your daemon takes its permanent form.”

“Why then?”

Bucky stared pensively into the fire. “No one knows. This Dr Vanags is just one of a series of scientists who have tried to study daemons and how they work. See, for a long time the Church banned any research into them. It only became socially accepted about a hundred years ago.”

Darcy shook her head. How could people _not_ have been curious about their daemons? “How come?”

“The Church says that daemons are a person’s soul, the most godly part of them. So investigating it? Asking questions? That was heresy. But the Church lost a lot of its control because of the First World War- people saw and did horrible things, and it changed how they thought about themselves and God,” Bucky expounded, his deep voice hypnotic. Darcy was impressed at how good a storyteller he was; he had been almost monosyllabic around her for so long.

“So what exactly was Vanags trying to figure out?”

Bucky swallowed. “As far as I can tell, he started out trying to understand how daemons only shift for children, and why that stops when they grow up. I can’t imagine that went down well with the Church, weakened though it was, because the Church’s stance was always that children ‘s daemons can change because they aren’t sinful, like adults. Anyway, Vanags fell in with Hydra early on, because they were willing to fund his research…for a price.”

Darcy grimaced. “What price?”

“They wanted him to figure out how to separate a child from their daemon. Permanently separate them.”

Darcy was aghast. “Why would they want to do that?”

Bucky shrugged, but it didn’t come off as lighthearted. “Hydra are sick fucks, but they’re curious. They never needed a good reason for doing something.”

Darcy rested her hand on top of his, squeezing lightly.

“Anyway, during the War, this Vanags figured out how to separate children from their daemons. He called it _incision._ Fancy word for torture if you ask me,” Bucky continued, “By 1947 Vanags was planning to try it on an adult. To see if it affected someone different if their daemon is fixed.”

Darcy bit her lip. She could tell from the way Bucky’s voice had turned almost robotic that he was referring to himself. She wanted to hurt this Dr Vanags very, very badly, even though she knew he was long dead.

“Was that you?”

Bucky laughed darkly. “Not the first few times. Hydra wanted to make sure the process was possible before they tried it out on their prized attack dog. They’d already pumped me full of super-soldier serum and they’d been conditioning me for over two years. They weren’t about to waste their hard work, not when there were so many soldiers wandering around the Eastern Bloc, ripe for turning into guinea pigs.”

Bucky sighed. Darcy just gripped his hand harder, unsure of what to say.

“I’m sorry, Darcy. I’m putting this all on you. It ain’t fair,” he apologised, turning to look at her.

Darcy smiled at him. “You’re not putting anything on me. I want you to talk to me about this, if it helps you.”

He stared at her for a moment longer, clearly weighing up something in his mind before speaking again. “They did it to me in 1951. That was the last time I saw Andromeda.”

She gulped. Sixty-seven years. That was how long Bucky had lived without the other half of himself, the half that many people in this world believed was a person’s soul, their very core of being.

No wonder he had been so prickly around her. He was in the midst of finding the other half of himself and then she literally dropped in his lap, throwing up all sorts of complications and problems.

Darcy rested her head on Bucky’s shoulder, wanting him to know that she was close, that she was there for him as he unloaded.

“I just…I miss her so much. I’ve been feeling this…emptiness for so many years. When I was the Winter Soldier, I didn’t really notice it, because all that mattered was the mission. But after I fought Steve in DC…it all started to unravel, and I’ve been walking around feeling like a dead man ever since,” he continued, “Then you show up, and…suddenly I feel like maybe the emptiness is shrinking, but I couldn’t understand why you made any difference, and it made me mad. I’m sorry, I was so horrible to you.”

“Bucky-” Darcy tried to interject, but he ploughed on.

“I didn’t understand why you mattered. When you told me I was your soulmate…it terrified me, because it sounded a lot like Fate, and she hasn’t been too kind to me.”

_Of course the idea of a pre-destined soulbond was going to freak out someone who hadn’t had even basic autonomy for several decades._

“What changed your mind?

Bucky took a long time to answer. “I’m tired of feeling this way, like I’m living half a life,” he admitted. “And,” he added, his eyes locking with hers, “I’m scared.”

“Bucky, listen to me. We’re going to find Andromeda,” she told him, pouring all of her conviction into the words.

Bucky smiled; it even touched his eyes. “I believe you.”

“Good. Now kiss me,” she demanded, playfully. Bucky’s smile became a grin as he dipped his head down, pressing his lips against hers.

She wondered if she would ever get used to the feeling of his lips on hers, if she would ever take it for granted. She doubted it; in that moment it was hard to believe that being with Bucky would ever feel anything less than amazing.

She wished that Steve and Natasha weren’t nearby. She wished that she and Bucky were out here in the beautiful Belarusian countryside alone, so that she could take off his shirt and push him back onto the grass, and kiss all over his chest and stomach. She’d take her time, exploring every inch of his gorgeous body before riding him until they both collapsed in a sweaty heap.

Darcy’s thighs tensed automatically, a spark of arousal jolting through her as Bucky’s tongue traced the roof of her mouth. God, did she want him.

As if reading her mind, Bucky pulled back, licking his lips in a way that did nothing to slow her rapid heartbeat. “Not here, Darcy.”

She managed a smirk. “Where’s a dilapidated cottage when you need it, huh?”

It amazed her how easily she could talk about their time at the cottage, now, in the shiny glow of their new relationship. The memories of their frantic, incredible coupling had tormented her for days, but now the thought had her smiling and crossing her legs all at once.

“Seriously, what happened in that cottage?”

Darcy sighed, turning in sync with Bucky to glare at Natasha and Steve. The damn cock-blockers.

Steve at least had the good grace to look chagrined as he settled by the fire. Natasha smirked lightly as she sat next to him, but Darcy was beginning to think that that was the woman’s default expression, so she didn’t take it personally.

“How much farther do we have to go?” Darcy asked, breaking the slightly tense silence after a few minutes.

“About five hundred miles,” Steve supplied, shifting to try and get more comfortable.

“Mostly on back roads, of course,” Natasha added.

“Fun,” Darcy muttered, well aware that back roads meant bumpy, twisty dirt tracks 99% of the time. She had never suffered from travel sickness as a kid, but apparently bumping around in the backseat of a 4x4 on a grand tour of eastern Europe was enough to set her stomach off.

Eventually, Natasha picked up the Zeus file and started flicking through it while Steve and Bucky began quietly discussing baseball stats, much to Darcy’s misery.

She watched Bucky out of the corner of her eye, feeling all warm and fuzzy as he smiled and laughed with his old buddy. There was still an undercurrent of tension to his posture, but Darcy felt bold, and shuffled closer so that she could rest her head on his shoulder. Bucky’s arm immediately slid around her waist, supporting her weight with ease and providing her with some extra warmth. He was like a six-foot tall space heater, and she loved it.

She shut her eyes, only half-listening to what they were saying, and noting with some amusement their strong disdain for the Dodgers. Darcy was no baseball buff, but she did happen to know that the Brooklyn Dodgers relocated to LA in the 50s. That must’ve really stung the two Brooklyn boys when they found out. She wondered if they had been to a baseball game since their respective defrostings. Did they have the time for that sort of thing? Certainly not now, but before?

It occurred to Darcy that she knew relatively little about Bucky’s life, both before and after his time with Hydra. Sure, she knew some stuff about Captain America and the Howling Commandos from high school history, but not much had stuck around in her brain for the past nine years. Anyway, was the history she learned in _her_ dimension correct here?

Wow, she was a bad soulmate. She and Bucky were virtually strangers to one another, yet here she was snuggling up to him by a campfire and promising him that they’d get his daemon back as if she had any legitimate skills to make that possible.

As she dozed, Darcy allowed a little bit of negativity to leak into her thoughts. What if they _didn’t_ find Andromeda? What if they got so close only to find that Bucky’s daemon was long gone? What if Darcy had to _leave_ before she could help him? She had no way of getting in touch with Frigga or Thor, and her watch was ticking down every second until she’d disappear in a proverbial puff of smoke.

Thinking about leaving Bucky was like taking a dagger to the heart; she couldn’t even fathom it, but she knew that it was going to _hurt_ , badly. He had been so sweet and open the past twenty-four hours, but Darcy knew that she had already been smitten with him long before his change of heart. It seemed that the soul-bond could even overcome sceptics and taciturn former-assassins.

She felt close to Bucky in a way she’d never felt with _anyone_ , and it both thrilled and terrified her. This was exactly what she’d always feared about finding her soulmate- that the bond would overcome all logic and reason, that it might fabricate emotions that wouldn’t otherwise exist. Maybe that was a stupid way to think; after all, the soul-bond was inevitable, and it had been present in her dealings with Bucky from the beginning. She had no alternate frame if reference on how she should feel about him.

Yes, she was attracted to him. She didn’t think that was just the soul-bond, but she supposed that her long-term crush on Aragorn from _Lord of the Rings_ might have been a spooky, soul-bond set up. Seriously, Bucky wasn’t Viggo Mortensen’s twin or anything, but they both had the dimpled chin, icy blue eyes and scruffy brown hair going on. Bucky and Aragorn were both also total heroes, with a bit of an edge that made them interesting.

Plus, Darcy had seen through Bucky’s gruffness quite quickly. He was a hurt and damaged soul, and every caretaker instinct she possessed wanted to help him. It was wired into nature. That was who she was. It was disturbing to think that she might be like this- compassionate to a fault- because of _him._

Honestly, it was all philosophy and biology on a level she didn’t understand. She had always favoured subjects like history and political science; solid, factual things that she could wrap her head around. Soul-bonds were just too damn confusing.

Bucky shifted against her, and Darcy stirred to wakefulness. She hadn’t even realised that she’d properly dozed off, but the fire had burned down significantly.

She muttered groggily as Bucky gently eased himself onto his back, tugging Darcy towards him so that she lay half on top of him.

Darcy snuggled into his warm, firm chest, and decided that this was definitely the place she wanted to be.

 

~ **Day Ten~**

* * *

 

They managed to traverse the west of Belarus in a day, thanks to Natasha’s terrifying driving skills. They had swapped out their Romanian 4x4 for an old Jeep shortly after crossing into Lithuania; it was a bit of a squeeze, what with four adults and two big cat daemons, but they made it work. Darcy figured that a person _might_ drive from Romania into Ukraine or Belarus, but heading up towards the Baltic was unlikely, especially on back roads. Far safer to have a Lithuanian license plate, in case anyone was actually looking.

Honestly, God bless Europe’s open borders. Their trip wouldn’t have been possible without it. One official border and they’d _all_ be done for: Natasha, Steve and Bucky would all be locked up, and Darcy would be in some shit because she didn’t have any identification with her.

There wasn’t too much chat in the car- everyone was too lost in their own thoughts- but later in the afternoon, Bucky and Steve did start telling some funny childhood stories about each other at Natasha’s urging, which Darcy enjoyed immensely.

Apparently, Steve had been trouble with a capital T from the age of six, and Bucky had been saving his ass ever since.

Darcy smiled fondly at her soulmate, enjoying the laughter in his eyes as he bantered with his oldest friend. These little glimpses made Darcy feel like she was getting to see the _real_ Bucky, the one unburdened by fear and horrible circumstances.

He was a very attractive man, inside and out.

And Darcy was falling for him, big time.

* * *

 

“Remind me why we volunteered for this?” Darcy muttered, tripping over yet another tree root. The sun was starting to set, and she was too preoccupied with keeping an eye on Bucky to watch where she was putting her feet.

She _did not_ want to get lost here in the -admittedly beautiful- Lithuanian countryside.

“You mean you don’t want to collect firewood with me?” Bucky teased, turning back to look at her. He had a bundle of large branches in his arms. Darcy had a little pile of twigs, because Bucky had insisted on doing the heavy lifting. She was a-okay with that.

Darcy sighed. “I’d rather be sitting by the fire,” she admitted.

Bucky chuckled. “Well, unless we get these back to camp, we won’t _have_ a fire to sit at.”

“True. Still think you and Steve could’ve been gentlemen and done it.”

He paused, letting her catch up to him. “And leave you alone with Natasha?”

“Why would that be bad?” Darcy frowned. Natasha was a bit intimidating, sure. But she seemed pretty decent.

“She’d get the info on our _rendezvous_ in the cottage out of you in five minutes flat. Frankly, she doesn’t need the ammunition.”

Darcy laughed. “You think Steve hasn’t told her? Pretty sure he heard.”

Bucky smirked. “Yeah, you were awfully loud,” he said thoughtfully, easily dodging the half-hearted kick Darcy aimed at his shins.

“ _Bucky!”_

“Yeah, just like that,” he laughed, grinning cheekily at her scandalised expression.

She sniffed, overtaking him. “You were pretty quiet, but I know you enjoyed it _a lot,_ ” she taunted, swinging her hips dramatically. Bucky’s eyes shot down to her ass immediately, a flash of lust crossing his face.

Darcy felt a swell of pride…until Bucky suddenly dropped his armful of branches and leapt at her, catching her up in his arms. Darcy’s pile of twigs flew everywhere, but she couldn’t even care about it.

She giggled, trying to swivel away from him to no avail. His arms were like steel bars, trapping her against him. She felt that she should make some show of token resistance, for decency’s sake, but it was hard to think straight when he was pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses down the side of her neck.

“ _Bucky!_ What about Steve?” she managed to gasp out as he bit lightly on a sensitive spot near the curve of her shoulder.

Bucky spun her around to face him, one of his eyebrows tilted up as he gave her the sassiest look she’d ever received. “Don’t tell me you’d rather be doing this with him,” he teased, his hands flexing on her ass for emphasis.

Playing along, Darcy decided to poke the bear with a stick. “Well, he _does_ have an incredible shoulder-to-waist ratio-” She let out a small yelp as Bucky lifted her off her feet, coaxing her legs to wrap around his waist.

“I’ll show you incredible, doll,” he promised, as Darcy’s hands slid unconsciously over his own amazing shoulders.

“I don’t know if I can judge your shoulders incredible until I’ve actually seen them up close and personal.” She peered at him invitingly from under her eyelashes, relieved when he grinned cockily back at her. She wasn’t sure what exactly the metal prosthetic looked like where it attached to his skin, and she was worried that he might be self-conscious.

“Trying to get me out of my shirt, Darcy?”

She tilted her head, licking her lips just to torment him. “Yeah. And your pants, too. And skivvies-”

“So, basically, you want me naked,” Bucky clarified, obviously sensing a long-winded speech from her.

“Yes. Fair’s fair. You’ve seen my goods, now I wanna see yours.”

Bucky’s tongue wet his lower lip, a lascivious twinkle glimmering in his eyes. “Darcy, you aren’t just _good,_ you’re a goddamn _knockout._ ”

Darcy tried and failed not to preen at his compliment. She knew she had a bangin’ body, but most of the guys telling her that were asshole strangers, and she _did not_ appreciate their commentary.

“Thanks. I’d say ‘you, too’, but obviously I don’t know yet,” she needled, smiling triumphantly when Bucky huffed and set her back on her feet.

He stepped back a few yards, unzipping his tac jacket and rolling his shoulders to get it off. His Henley followed seconds later, yanked over his head in that effortless way that all guys seemed to know about.

Darcy’s mouth went dry as she took in his amazing physique. Bucky had muscles on top of muscles, and she _really_ wanted to get her hands on him- the washboard abs, the pecs, the broad shoulders, and _of course,_ his arms. This was the first time she’d been able to really look at his prosthetic, and she could admit to being dazzled. It was a beautifully crafted piece of machinery, and even the harsh scars marking Bucky’s skin around it couldn’t dampen her growing desire as she eyed up her gorgeous soulmate.

“Damn, wish I’d brought my camera with me,” she muttered, voice a little unsteady.

“Ha ha,” Bucky replied dryly, popping the button on his tac pants without breaking eye contact. Damn, this had been her idea but now Bucky was turning it into a smoking hot strip tease and she was desperately trying not to swoon.

She swallowed as Bucky pushed his pants down over his hips. She may have made a sound of distress when he bent double to unlace his boots, the glorious view of him in those tight boxer-briefs being eclipsed for just a moment.

After kicking away his pants, Bucky straightened and shot her the most panty-dropping look she’d ever received. Honestly, she had thought the broody Bucky who had rocked her world in that cottage was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen…but this? Bucky in determined seduction mode? She was screwed.

“Skivvies, too?” Bucky prompted, hooking his metal thumb into the waistband of his underwear. The underwear that was doing _nothing_ to hide just how turned on he was.

Darcy cleared her throat. “Yep. I want you buck naked,” she said, grinning cheekily when he rolled his eyes at her silly pun.

He pushed the waistband right down, and Darcy wished that she had a bit more control over her facial features, because Bucky looked far too smug on seeing her reaction.

Obviously, she had felt _exactly_ what he was packing when they’d had sex a few days prior, but seeing it was a whole other matter.

Bucky was very… _proportionate,_ and Darcy was very, very grateful.

The cocky bastard preened, putting his hands on his narrow hips and everything.

_Damn, he even has that Adonis belt I’m always reading about online._

“At the risk of inflating your… _ego_ even more, I’ve gotta say: you’re insanely hot,” Darcy managed to tell him, fanning her reddened face.

Bucky chuckled and practically strutted towards her. Darcy was grateful that the tree was holding her upright.

“How about we get you buck naked, too?” Bucky suggested running his hands down her arms and kissing beneath her jaw.

“Uh.. _um…_ it’s kind of cool out,” she protested, knowing that it was hopeless. They both knew exactly where this train was going.

Sexville.

“I know,” Bucky purred, leering at her chest. She didn’t _think_ that her nipples were actually visible through the knit of the sweater, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Perv.”

“Says the woman who dragged me into a forest and made me strip naked for her pleasure,” Bucky countered, nipping her earlobe on the last word.

Darcy pretended to think about it for all of two seconds. There could’ve been eight inches of snow on the ground, and she’d still be ripping her clothes off for Bucky.

“Oh, fine,” she sighed, very put upon, kicking off her boots.

Bucky needed no more invitation, his fingers darting under the hems of her sweater and two t-shirts and tugging them all over her head in one swift movement.

Darcy unbuttoned her jeans and did her best to shimmy them off. It wasn’t easy- they were those super-tight jegging type ones, and while they made her ass look incredible, they didn’t make for quick undressing.

Huffing slightly, she managed to peel them off, kicking them and her boots off in a few frantic moves.

Bucky eyed her up none too subtly, licking his lower lip nice and slowly for her benefit as she fumbled with the clasp of her bra. Had she known that she’d be wearing the damn thing for two weeks, she’d have put on a comfy sports bra before she left soulmate world. The underwire was seriously driving her crazy…but it did make the girls look good, and Bucky was clearly appreciative.

“Breast man?” she teased, finally pulling the little hooks free.

Bucky’s eyes glazed over, and that was all the answer she needed.

She laughed at his expression, playfully tossing her bra at him. “So, Romeo. How are we doing this? I’ve never had outdoor sex before,” she admitted, looking around.

“I’m pretty glad to hear that,” Bucky decided, stepping forward and hooking his fingers through the band of her underwear. Thank god Steve had been able to pilfer a multi-pack of them from whatever store he’d raided in the Ukraine. They were thermal and deeply unsexy, and asking Steve to get them had been so embarrassing, but panties were panties.

“We’ve already ticked off wall sex. And on our first time, that’s pretty ambitious,” Darcy continued, mostly just to wind Bucky up. It was clear that he was raring to go.

He slid his arms around her waist, pulling her flush up against him so that she could feel _everything_ : how hard he was, his chest hair rubbing against her skin, the rapid thud of his heart.

“It certainly is,” Bucky agreed, kissing her slowly. “How do you fantasise us being?”

That drew her up short. “Huh?”

He grinned. “Don’t deny it. I saw you squirming last night. What were you thinking?”

For all that Darcy wasn’t a virgin, she also wasn’t the most sexually accomplished. Most of her conquests were one-night stands in college, a blur of hormones and exam stress. There was rarely any _talking_ about what she wanted to do.

She could feel herself blushing. Bucky’s eyes twinkled with amusement, and she decided to just be honest. “I was thinking about tugging off your shirt. Pushing you back onto the ground, and running my hands all over you…” Here she traced her hands over his pecs and down to his abs, skirting his Adonis Belt and moving back up before he could protest “…Then, I’d help you get your jeans off, and you’d help me get off mine…” She ran her hands around his back, tracing his shoulder blades before smoothing down the strong, corded muscle of his back. Bucky’s eyes were inky black; he was completely entranced by her every word and Darcy’s heart soared with the power of it. “…And then I’d ride you til we both came,” she concluded, slipping her hands down to his firm, amazing ass.

_Haha who’s dazzled now, Bucky?_

He made a slight whimpering sound in the back of his throat before crushing his lips against hers in a mind-melting kiss.

“You’re trouble,” he noted gleefully, pulling away from her and hastily arranging their coats and sweaters to cover a reasonable patch of the ground.

Darcy laughed at his eagerness.

And the fact that they were about to have al fresco sex in the middle of a Lithuanian forest.

She was finding that there was rarely ever a dull moment in her life, now. And she loved it.

This trip was bringing out a side of herself that she’d never known. Old Darcy wouldn’t’ve had sex with a reformed assassin she’d only known for three days in a run-down barn. Old Darcy wouldn’t’ve gone on a roadtrip through eastern Europe with two enhanced super soldiers who were running from the law. Old Darcy wouldn’t’ve gone on a legitimate mission with them to a HYDRA base.

Old Darcy studied hard at school, and worked her ass off to graduate magna sum laude from college. Old Darcy built up connections and internships and work experience until she found a well-paying, high-flying career with growth potential. Old Darcy was single, and mostly kept to herself. Old Darcy was always in bed by ten, hopping out of bed at 6am, checking her work emails before she had even woken up properly. Old Darcy worked really hard to build the perfect life for herself, but no matter how much she tried, or how much she succeeded in everything she did, she still felt like there was a gaping hole in her life.

Darcy never wanted to go back to being that person again.

Perhaps sensing that he’d lost a bit of her attention, Bucky gently took her hand. “Doll, if you don’t want to do this, just say so. I know it’s not exactly the Ritz,” he said, a lopsided grin on his lips.

“The Ritz is a dump,” she replied, coaxing him over to the make-shift blanket of clothing.

Bucky sat down on the coats, completely unphased by the hard ground. Darcy shook her head at his eagerness, allowing him to pull her down so that she was straddling his stomach.

“What, no foreplay?” she teased, reaching behind herself and gripping his swollen cock. Bucky groaned, his head knocking back against the ground. She paused for a moment, making sure that he hadn’t concussed himself.

“Don’t stop,” he gasped, his hands skating over the dramatic dip between her waist and her hips.

Darcy watched the pleasure play over his features as she stroked him. It was several minutes before she realised that she was also enjoying it; so much so that she was grinding against Bucky’s abs in a desperate search for friction.

Without preamble, she leant up on her knees and positioned Bucky’s cock so that she could slide down onto him in one go.

She gasped at the delicious stretch. Her imagination had _not_ done him justice.

“Jesus,” Bucky exhaled, the tendons in his jaw visible as he battled to control himself. “You feel even better than I remember.”

“You too.” Darcy smiled, rolling her hips in a figure of eight. Bucky’s hands were tight on her hips, his fingers digging into the top of her ass. She could tell that he was fighting every instinct that told him to hold her still and thrust up into her, so she decided to be generous. She lifted up off him until he was just about still inside her, before sliding back down nice and slowly.

_Damn that’s good._ Bucky’s corresponding moan told her that she wasn’t the only one in favour of continuing. She tried to mix it up, alternating between slow and fast, her nails scratching lightly at Bucky’s chest. She knew that the super-soldier serum would heal them up in no time, but there was something primally enjoyable about seeing her marks on his skin.

Bucky managed to keep himself in check for a while, but it wasn’t long before he had bent his knees and started thrusting in counterpart to Darcy’s movements. She could feel the control slipping away from her and on to him, but through the haze of pleasure she couldn’t find the energy to complain.

“Darcy, touch yourself,” Bucky demanded, his voice strained. He was pumping into her harder and faster now, his chest flushed with exertion. Darcy could feel the sweat beading along her own hairline too and she wiped at it distractedly. “I wanna see you touch yourself.”

Part of her wanted to make a show of it, but the other part of her wanted to get off a.s.a.p.

With expediency coming out on top, Darcy slid her hand down her navel and began rubbing tight circles on her clit. From under her heavy eyelids she could see Bucky’s eyes darting from her face, to her breasts, to her hand and the place where he was sliding in and out of her.

He gave a wordless cry, his right hand pushing hers out of the way and his thumb copying the patterns she had just been making. He pressed harder than she had, but the slight roughness of his skin made the friction even more delicious, and before she could protest she stiffened, crying his name.

Her orgasm seemed to stretch on and on, as Bucky’s thumb kept working her over. Without both of his hands supporting her, she slumped forward onto his chest. Bucky didn’t miss a beat, banding his prosthetic arm around her back and pounding into her until he came, gasping her name over and over like a prayer.

They lay there for a few minutes, completing blissed out, sweat cooling on their skin. It was almost dark, now, and Darcy was surprised that Steve and Natasha hadn’t come looking for them.

That thought alone was enough to get her ass in gear. She untangled herself from Bucky’s arms, smiling at his protests, and began pulling on her clothes. He really protested at that.

“Make yourself decent,” she teased, tossing one of his socks at him. Bucky pouted, reaching for his shirt and tugging it over his head.

“No cuddles?”

She laughed, wriggling into her jeans. “Bucky, it’s cold out here. I’m not cuddling with you naked on the ground.”

“Fine,” he sighed, hoisting up his own pants with ease. She glowered, energetically tugging at the waistband of hers to get them over her butt.

Within a few minutes they were both fully presentable. Although Darcy did have to pick quite a few blades of grass out of Bucky’s hair.

“So, was it everything you fantasised and more?” Bucky enquired, one eyebrow quirked.

“It was…different.”

Bucky’s eyebrow shot up. “ _Different?_ I was hoping for ‘sensational’, ‘mind-blowing’. Something along those lines.”

Darcy giggled, leaning up to kiss his nose. “It was both sensational and mind-blowing. When I say different, I mean…don’t be offended, but _you_ seem different. Last time…you barely spoke, and I still felt like I hardly knew you at all. Not that I didn’t want you, I mean, _obviously_ I did-”

Bucky placed his finger over her lips. “Shh, Darcy. I know what you mean. Before, I…I was trying to stay away from you, trying not to get attached, but then I saw you in that little towel, damp and pink from the shower…I wasn’t even thinking straight. I had to have you. I could hardly believe it when you clung onto me just as tight; I was sure you were going to push me away.”

“Not a chance. I wasn’t sure how I felt about you, but I definitely knew that I wanted to have sex with you.”

Bucky twined his fingers with hers, watching their hands fit together intently. “And now?”

Darcy frowned. “Uh, I’m not sure I’d be up for another round just yet.”

He smiled, but it was distracted. “I mean, how do you feel about me, now?”

She looked into his striking blue eyes and saw the vulnerability there, how much it had cost him to ask that question. She wasn’t comfortable talking about stuff like this, but she wouldn’t make a joke out of it or brush it off.

“Now, I definitely know that I want to have sex with you- again. And…I definitely have feelings for you,” she admitted, letting her eyes drop to his mouth briefly. It was too hard to hold his gaze.

Bucky gently took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, guiding her face back up until he could look her in the eyes again. “I definitely have feelings for you, too. That’s why I’m different. I…I don’t want to pretend that I don’t feel something for you. Not anymore. It’s too hard. I’ve felt…drawn to you since the moment I laid eyes on you. I can’t explain it, but I can’t ignore it, either.”

Darcy had felt a giddy smile overtaking her face at his words, but she winced at his confession of ‘interest at first sight’. She knew what that was. “The feeling drawn to me part? That’s the soulbond. I think, since you don’t have a soulmark, I don’t know if it works both ways. But that’s how I feel about you.”

Bucky looked thoughtful. Darcy was petrified that he was going to run again, that this would be the moment that he’d realise his mistake and tell her he wanted nothing to do with her.

“Okay,” he said, pressing a chaste kiss to her lips. He walked back to where they had abandoned their piles of firewood, lifting both bundles easily.

“Okay?” Darcy asked, following him through the trees, “That’s it?”

Bucky glanced over his should at her. “What do you want me to say?”

She frowned. “I’m not sure.”

“Alright, well let me know when you decide. Your wish is my command.”

Darcy pinched his ass in retaliation for his mockery. “Who showed you Aladdin?”

Bucky flinched lightly, laughing. “No one. I watched a bunch of Disney movies when I was in Bucharest. My sisters loved _Snow White_ when it came out. It was nice to see something familiar,” he said, voice turned wistful.

“You have sisters?” she asked, realising just how little she knew about him.

He nodded. “Yeah, three: Doreen, Eleanor and Rebecca. I mean…they’re not around anymore, obviously.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Bucky smiled at her. “Don’t be. They all had good lives. Got married, had kids, passed away surrounded by family.” There was something about the way he described their lives that made Darcy’s heart ache. It was clear that he thought that his sisters had lived the dream life. Simple, run-of-the-mill, full of love and loss, trial and tribulation, but overall wonderful.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

They walked for a few more minutes in silence.

“You know, it’s occurred to me that we don’t really know very much about each other,” Darcy said, voicing her thoughts from earlier.

Bucky pursed his lips slightly. “You think?”

“Yeah, I do. I…well, I loved when you told me about the stars, about how your dad loved astronomy. Will you tell me more of that? Stuff about you, and your family?” She asked, slightly bashful. What if the memories of his family and his childhood were too private, too painful for him to share with her? “I want to get to know you.”

Bucky flashed a mega watt smile at her. “I think you already know me, Darce, but of course I’ll tell you that stuff, if you wanna listen. On one condition, though: you let me know you, too.”

She smiled back. “Deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay in getting this chapter posted- RL has been crazy busy lately, and my fic writing has had to take a back seat. I really hope that I can get the next chapter out in a few weeks' time, but I can't make any promises... I _can_ promise that I will finish this fic- I'm determined!
> 
> Thanks so much to everyone giving feedback, it means a lot :)


	7. Chapter 7

Darcy and Bucky returned to camp after ensuring that they both looked perfectly presentable. Not that it stopped Steve and Natasha smirking at them in amusement. Hell, even their daemons seemed amused.

“Did you have trouble finding enough firewood?” Natasha asked innocently, as Steve arranged the branches and twigs in a pyramid formation.

“No, we just thought a walk in the woods would be nice. You know, stretch our legs after the long drive,” Darcy replied airily, watching the fire spring to life.

Steve and Natasha shared a glance.

“Y’know, that sounds like a good idea, actually,” Steve said, dusting off his hands.

The edges of Natasha’s lips quirked up. “I agree. Let’s go.”

The pair of them vanished into the treeline with nary a backward glance.

“Subtle,” Bucky noted drily, sitting down next to Darcy.

She laughed, bumping her shoulder against him. “I don’t think we were exactly subtle, either.”

He looked down at her. “They’ll be occupied for a while…we could go again,” he suggested, grinning salaciously.

Darcy spluttered. “I’m still recovering from the last time! We don’t all have super-soldier stamina, you know.”

“Only way to improve your stamina is to practice…and I’m happy to help.” He winked.

She shook her head, fighting back a smile. “Or, we could talk.”

Bucky groaned lightly, tipping his head back. She would’ve been offended, but she knew that he was joking.

“Go on, tell me something that I don’t know about you,” she prompted.

Bucky considered for a moment. “Okay…when I was growing up, I wanted to be a lion tamer.”

Darcy immediately burst out laughing. Bucky mock-glared at her.

“Hey, don’t laugh at my childhood dreams.”

“Sorry…sorry, it’s just…that’s a bit outside the box,” she admitted.

He shrugged. “My Mom took me to a Ringling Bros. Circus for my tenth birthday. It was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen, and I wanted to be part of it. Andromeda would turn into a lion so that I could play pretend…I mean, because I was a kid, she could only turn into a lion cub, but it still worked.”

Darcy leant up to kiss his cheek. He quirked a brow at her smile.

“What?”

She smiled wider. “Nothing, you’re just really cute, that’s all.”

A faint blush appeared along his cheekbones. He covered it by frowning at her, and gruffly saying: “I’m not cute. I’m scary.”

Darcy smothered her rising giggles and nodded sagely, playing along. “Utterly terrifying,” she agreed, grinning when Bucky’s serious expression broke.

“What did you wanna be when you were a kid?”

“A veterinarian,” Darcy replied immediately.

“How come you didn’t become one?”

“Because I discovered in high school that I _suck_ at hard sciences, and you need straight As to even have a chance of getting into Veterinary school,” she explained. It had once been something that upset her greatly, having to give up that dream when she was sixteen and realising that she’d never get the grades she needed, but she was well and truly over it now.

“I was always pretty good at science,” Bucky said, thoughtfully. “Actually, I think I pretty much got straight As through junior high and high school.”

Darcy smirked. “Beauty and brains, huh?”

“Well…” He shrugged, aiming for humble and largely failing.

Darcy breathed in the clear night air, letting the depth of the stars and the weight of Bucky’s presence next to her sink in.

“So what did you actually work as?” She asked, after a few minutes of companionable silence. “Y’know, before the war.”

“I worked down at the docks, same as my Pop. The money wasn’t much, but I managed to save up enough to rent a place with Steve when I turned twenty.”

She smiled. “A bachelor pad of your very own, huh?”

“Pretty much. Don’t think we hardly ever cleaned the place properly, unless my Mom said she was coming over for a visit. Sometimes she’d just drop by and give me hell for it. Steve got a pass because he was small and sickly,” Bucky smiled at the memory.

“Your Dad worked at the docks. What about your Mom?”

“She was a homemaker, same as most married women back then. It was really unusual for women to work after they got married. Most corporations didn’t allow it, anyway.”

Darcy grimaced, both at the stark realisation of their age gap and the rampant misogyny of the era he grew up in. “Okay, have to say I’m glad I didn’t grow up in the 20s and 30s. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a homemaker,” she added hastily, not wanting him to think she was insulting his mother. “But not having any real say in the matter, not having a career. I can’t even imagine it.”

Bucky watched her from the corner of his eye. “You ever think about it? Having kids?”

Darcy felt a totally unnecessary blush forming on her cheeks and chest. “Yeah. Sometimes, but it’s more of a ‘way in the future’ type of thinking,” she admitted, staring steadily into the fire. “What about you?”

“Well, back in the day I always said that I wanted an entire baseball team.”

Darcy giggled, prompting Bucky to smile down at her. “ _Nine kids?!”_

 “Yeah. The more the merrier, right? I mean, I don’t wish for that now, obviously.”

“Obviously?”

He sighed. “My life ain’t no place for kids. Jesus, I’m barely surviving it myself and I’m a super-soldier with accelerated healing abilities.”

Darcy pushed herself slightly more upright so that she could loop an arm around his shoulder and kiss his temple. “I think you’re surviving really well, all things considered.”

“Thanks, Darce.”

“So…you never thought about settling down?”

Bucky smirked. “Nah. I enjoyed being single too much. I figured I’d get around to it eventually, but then the war happened and I was drafted in ’41.”

Darcy giggled quietly. “Okay, good. Just wanted to check that there isn’t a little old lady in a nursing home who’s going to lay claim to you.”

Bucky looked to her, eyebrow raised. “You saying you wanna be my steady girl?”

She pretended to consider. “Hmm, I don’t know. What exactly would that entail?”

He turned to her, his hand reaching out to cup her cheek. “Let me see…lots of kissing, and lots of… _not kissing,”_ he said, his tongue licking his lips.

With him staring at her like that, it was a struggle for Darcy to keep her mind on track. “Well, I _suppose_ I could be amenable to that. What else?”

“Well, obviously I’d take you out, y’know, if things were different,” he said, sounding wistful.

“What kind of stuff would we do on these dates?”

Bucky traced the back of her hand with one of his fingers. Her hand looked small and delicate in comparison to his, but his touch was gentle. “Dinner, dancing, catch a show…anything you wanted really.”

Darcy smiled. “That all sounds…really nice.” Of course, it was just a pipe dream, and they both knew it.

He cleared his throat. “That a yes?”

Darcy turned her head, leaning up to kiss his lips. “Yes, it’s a yes,” she assured him when they parted. Bucky beamed, his normally icy-blue eyes full of a warmth that Darcy never would’ve expected to see directed at her.

He was pulling her deeper and deeper, and she was letting him do it.

They waited in contented silence for Steve and Natasha to return.

Darcy watched the endless flickering of the fire and hummed contentedly as she cosied up in Bucky’s arms. With him at her back, she felt like nothing bad could ever touch her.

With her arm outstretched on her knee, she could see as the numbers on her watch flickered.

**[122:17:04]**

 

**~Day Eleven~**

* * *

 

The next day, they finally arrived in Latvia.

And everything promptly went to hell.

It started out just fine. The four them had a depressing breakfast before setting off in the Lithuanian jeep. Bucky drove this time, and Darcy joined him in the front, insisting that she had to be his co-pilot. Being co-pilot involved little more than checking Natasha’s fancy sat-nav periodically, and holding Bucky’s hand whenever he didn’t have to change gears.

It was a good gig.

The only problem was that they didn’t know exactly where they were going. Natasha had managed to triangulate a rough area where the Hydra base could be, but the area covered a three hundred mile radius, and the old map she had found at the Carpathians base was practically useless unless one was staring at exactly the correct place on the digital sat nav screen. The paper map was simply too basic to be helpful to anyone who didn’t know where the base already was. Darcy had no idea why someone had created it in the first place, but she suspected it to be a red herring.

This theory gained more ground as they wasted hours circling around awkward country lanes and backroads, none of which revealed a suspect-looking location.

They stopped, reluctantly, just before sundown. The Jeep was making noises of protest as it guzzled the remains of its fuel, but Bucky managed to coax it to the nearest village where Natasha put her rudimentary knowledge of Latvian to use by finding an elderly man willing to sell them petrol from the stores in his shed.

Darcy, Bucky and Steve all stayed in the car, all alert as Natasha conducted business. A few locals had congregated further down the road, and several of the women glanced surreptitiously at the car. Darcy got the feeling that it was rare for visitors to appear in these parts. She could only hope that no one recognised Natasha. Steve was the bigger celebrity, but with the overgrown hair and beard, he didn’t look much like himself. The lack of his ubiquitous Captain America uniform helped, too, and his famous shield was lying hidden under the driver’s seat.

Natasha accepted several cannisters of fuel from the local man, and returned to the car with her daemon at her heels. She calmly pouring the contents of one into the fuel tank before they both slipped into the backseat.

“Drive,” Natasha commanded, cool as a cucumber.

It wasn’t until they were five minutes from the town that she spoke again.

“We’ve been made.”

Her words dropped like a bomb in the car. Darcy jumped, gasping. Bucky’s hand slipped on the wheel for a moment, the car’s tires cutting at an angle into the juts of the dirt road before righting themselves.

“What?” Steve exclaimed, concerned etched deep on his forehead.

Darcy turned to look into the back of the car, her stomach dropping at the look of anxiety in Natasha’s eyes.

“Did you see the women at the end of the street?”

Steve and Darcy nodded.

“Yeah, what about them?” Bucky asked brusquely.

“The blonde one was SHIELD. Emily Rowlandson, she was a field agent. Level four, I think,” Natasha replied, her hand compulsively reaching out to her daemon.

Bucky swore and accelerated. Darcy felt completely overwhelmed.

“She’s HYDRA?” Steve asked, looking out the back window as if expecting a cavalcade to be on their tail.

Natasha laughed humourlessly. “Worse. She was loyal to SHIELD all along, and when they disbanded…the CIA hired her straight off the bat. They’ve backed Ross from day one. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s a sleeper agent placed here for the sole purpose of keeping an eye out for any of us passing through.”

“Oh my God,” Darcy whispered, right as Bucky let out a long list of expletives.

Steve dropped his face into his hands.

“They’ll be on us in minutes,” Natasha continued, her voice gaining confidence as she slid into attack mode, “They requisitioned a lot of SHIELD’s old tech, including a hellicarrier and several quinjets. It’s just a question of how far out they are, but given Bucky’s history here…I’d guess eastern Europe is well covered.”

“What do we do?” Darcy posed the question, but she had no idea at whom she was actually directing it. This was all beyond her understanding.

Steve reached for his shield, jostling Bucky’s seat slightly as he pulled it free. “We have to split up. Nat and I-”

Bucky jerked the steering wheel in alarm. “ _No!_ No way, punk-”

“Bucky, we _have_ to-”

“I said no!”

Darcy glanced worriedly between the two super soldiers as they shouted at each other.

“SHUT UP!” Natasha bellowed, stunning Steve and Bucky into silence. Darcy didn’t think she’d ever heard someone shout so loudly in her life. Bucky slammed on the brakes, bringing them to a screeching halt.

“Both of you, quit arguing. You’re not splitting up,” Natasha continued at a normal decibel, reaching forward to hand Darcy the Zeus file, as well as a comm and a small communication device that looked like a cross between a phone and a walkie talkie. “I’ll lead them away from the three of you-”

“Nat-”

“Can it, Rogers,” she replied, but with little heat. “This is how it has to be, and you know it. You’re so close to finding Barnes’s daemon. You can’t stop now,” she said firmly, scanning the sky above them.

“They’ll catch you,” Bucky informed her, a grim set to his mouth.

Natasha nodded, her eyes flickering over to Steve, who was watching her with an intense look of love and misery. Darcy dropped her eyes, feeling like she was intruding on a private moment.

“I’ll be _fine,_ ” Natasha murmured, cupping Steve’s cheek and pressing a soft kiss to his lips.

Darcy looked over at Bucky, who was also studiously trying not to stare at this pretty heartbreaking goodbye.

“I’ll come and get you out. _I promise,_ ” Steve whispered fiercely.

“My hero,” Natasha replied, her voice full of a private warmth that Darcy felt embarrassed to overhear.

“Time to go,” Bucky said stiffly, opening the driver door and hopping out.

Darcy followed suit, circling around the car until she was standing next to him.

Steve and Natasha emerged seconds later. Natasha had put her emotions away somewhere where they couldn’t be seen on her face.

“Thank you, Natasha,” Bucky said, solemnly.

She smirked. “Good luck, Barnes. And you, Darcy.”

Darcy nodded, surprised by how much she was going to miss the flame-haired spy.

Natasha and Steve shared one last glance before she hopped into the car, her daemon sitting regally in the passenger seat.

“I’ll lead them well away from here. Just _find the base_!” Natasha shouted out the open window, throwing the Jeep into gear and flooring it.

The four of them watched the Jeep vanish in a cloud of dust before scurrying for cover in the treeline.

* * *

 

The rest of the afternoon was filled with tense silences. For the first hour or so they stuck to the heavy cover of the forest, but none of them seemed able to resist looking skywards every few minutes, wondering if a quinjet would be discernible in a glint of sunlight.

Darcy thought about Natasha, if she would be able to escape the CIA’s clutches, if she was going to end up imprisoned for aiding Steve and Bucky. She knew that Natasha had signed the Accords, but she didn’t know what that might mean if Natasha was deemed to have gone rogue.

The effect on Steve was palpable. The cheerful disposition he had maintained even before the joy of Natasha’s arrival had completely disappeared, replaced by a look of supreme devastation.

Darcy understood why he was so distressed when she asked Bucky about the Accords situation after they set up camp in an abandoned shepherd’s hut that night. Fearful of being spotted, they had lit a small fire inside the tiny dwelling. The smoke was killing Darcy’s eyes, but the stone walls of the hut were damp with moss and they needed the meagre heat that the fire provided.

Steve had insisted on running a perimeter, but Bucky had only consented when Steve promised to keep his comm on and not stray beyond a two mile radius. It was odd to see Bucky taking charge, but Darcy understood that he was worried about Steve’s emotions getting the better of him.

“What will happen to Natasha if they catch her?” Darcy whispered, her face tucked into Bucky’s chest. He was so much better than the fire, and she had cuddled up to him almost immediately, needing the comfort of his embrace.

Bucky sighed deeply, reaching up to cup the back of her head with his palm. “She’ll end up on the Raft, probably. It’s a high-security prison for superhumans.”

Darcy bit her lip. “Well, where is it?”

“In the middle of the Atlantic,” he replied.

Darcy raised an eyebrow in question.

“It’s underwater. They keep it about five hundred meters below sea level. All the better to stop any daring escapes…or rescues.”

Darcy’s stomach roiled. The thought of being trapped below meters of water…the Raft sounded like an underwater grave.

“Poor Natasha,” she whispered, rubbing at her eyes.

“It’s a hell of a place, but don’t worry about Nat. She’s the most resourceful person I’ve ever met,” Bucky assured her, “In fact, she’s the one who broke into it last year and freed all of the prisoners, most of them Avengers.”

“How on earth did she do that? By herself?”

Bucky shrugged. “Not a clue. I told you, she’s resourceful. I bet Ross and his cronies were furious when they found the place empty.”

“Do they know she was the one who broke in?” Darcy didn’t like to think that they might be extra-harsh on Natasha because she’d outfoxed them once before.

“No idea. It was never leaked to the press. No one wants the general public to know that the Accords were ineffective at controlling us,” Bucky said, his voice bitter. Darcy understood his feelings on the matter: he had emerged from one type of captivity only to be told that he was to adhere to another, all because he was considered an ‘enhanced’ being.

“The Accords suck,” she muttered, earning a soft chuckle from Bucky.

“Agreed, sweetheart.” The nickname made her smile. She’d been called ‘sweetheart’ a few times in her life, always by some condescending asshole in a bar or on the subway. But when Bucky said it, a warm fuzzy feeling descended over her.

 _I’m such a sap_ , she thought, bemused at her own inner romantic.

The minutes ticked past, but still Cap and Lincoln didn’t return.

“Is Steve gonna be okay?” Darcy asked, though she wasn’t sure that even Bucky would know the answer.

He kissed her forehead. “He’s completely gone on Natasha, so I know he’s gonna be worried until he sees her again, but Steve’s a tough little punk-”

“Glad you think so, jerk,” a dry voice piped up.

Darcy turned in Bucky’s arms to see Steve duck his head as he joined them in the hut. Lincoln prowled around the edges of the small space, only settling down when Steve took a seat on the sleeping bag that Darcy had laid out for him.

Maybe she should’ve felt abashed for being caught out talking about Steve, but Darcy simply said: “Are you okay?”

Steve’s expression softened, and he managed a weak smile. “I’m okay, Darce. This just isn’t how I expected the day to go, that’s all.”

Darcy nodded, feeling the vibration of Bucky’s agreeing hum against her back. Steve’s eyes dropped to Bucky’s arms for a fraction of a second, a flicker of longing crossing his face as he took in Darcy and Bucky’s cosy position.

Darcy felt bad for him, but she figured that her refusing to snuggle with Bucky wouldn’t make Steve feel any better about the whole Natasha situation.

“So, I think we can all agree that today didn’t go quite to plan,” she said, satisfied when both men nodded in agreement. “But I am going to declare here and now that tomorrow will be a resounding success,” she added, with far more confidence than she truly felt. Still, as her words came out, she was filled with a sense of pure positivity.

“Successful how?” Bucky queried, laughing as he received an elbow to the gut.

“Don’t question me! I just have a good feeling, that’s all. Roll with it,” she replied tartly, shrieking with laughter when Bucky tipped her back against his chest and started rolling them both from side-to-side on the floor.

“Bucky, stop! _Hey!”_

It descended into a small wrestling match, with a very amused Steve refereeing, and Darcy giggling so much that she had to shove Bucky off her after a few minutes.

“I have to pee!” She insisted, slapping at Bucky’s hands as they tried to pull her back down onto the pile of sleeping bags.

Bucky’s expression immediately sobered. “Don’t go too far.”

“Take this,” Steve added, handing her a small comm. When it was properly tucked into her ear, she hurried outside.

The days events had shaken her confidence more than she was willing to admit, and Darcy did her business as quickly as she could.

Just as she was zipping up her jeans, a noise turned her head. It was distant, barely discernible against the light wind, but the sound immediately raised the hairs on the back of her neck.

Darcy scrambled back up the bank towards the shepherd’s hut. Steve and Bucky were discussing something in low, tense voices when she burst in.

“Are there wolves in Latvia?”

They both looked at her with identical expressions of confusion.

“Huh?”

“Are wolves native to Latvia?” she repeated, impatiently.

Steve frowned. “I think there’s a small population, but they mostly stick to the bigger forested areas out east.”

“Why?” Bucky asked her.

Darcy looked at him. “Because I just heard one howling.”

 

**~Day Twelve~**

* * *

 

It might’ve meant nothing. Hell, Darcy could’ve _imagined_ the wolf’s howl, what with all the focus on finding Andromeda, but she felt in her bones that they were in the right place.

Darcy honestly couldn’t put it into words, but she had persuaded Steve and Bucky to hang around for another day and check out the area. They were only about thirty miles from the town where the ex-SHIELD agent had supposedly spotted them, so staying was risky. Still, they had few other leads on the location of the facility, and this patch of the Latvian countryside seemed as plausible as any other.

Both men seemed satisfied with her vague explanation: “I just have a feeling that we’re close. I can’t put it into words, though.”

The three of them poured over the file and all of the documents on Natasha’s tablets.

By midday Steve had convinced himself that the old-fashioned map of the Hydra base’s location matched up with the surrounding countryside.

“See that range there? You can see it if you stand outside and look east, and _that_ is the river which probably feeds into the stream at the bottom of the hill,” he insisted, pointing excitedly at the very simplistic map. Darcy wasn’t entirely sure she agreed with his assessment, but it seemed as good a lead as any.

If the map was correct, they were only about five miles away from the base, which was nestled in a valley.

They all agreed to check it out as soon as dusk fell.

Late in the afternoon, Steve decided that he and Lincoln would do a brief reconnaissance mission. Bucky looked anxious, but didn’t try to dissuade his bestie. For her part, Darcy was a little relieved, because she had been hoping to get an opportunity to speak to Bucky alone.

He was checking over his rifle when she blurted: “Bucky, I want you to be honest, okay?”

“What is it, love?” he asked, immediately setting down the disassembled rifle and turning his full attention to her.

“Do you want me to come with you to the base? I don’t want to hold you back, not now, when you’re so close.”

Bucky reached up, delicately tracing her cheek with his thumb. His stormy blue eyes flickered around her face, taking in every detail.

“You can make your own decisions, Darce. Truth be told…I’d rather have you with me than apart from me,” he admitted, his eyes intense as he looked up at her. “Even if being with me means that you’re in more danger…it’s selfish, I know, but…”

“What?” Darcy prompted with a whisper.

“You make me feel safe,” he said, simply, “Stable. I feel stronger, because of you.”

Darcy swallowed, rapidly blinking back tears. Bucky noticed, smiling softly and tugging her into his arms.

“You make me feel safe, too, Bucky,” she managed to tell him, once her throat had unstuck.

He kissed her temple. “Good. Just promise me you’ll be careful. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you,” he murmured.

Darcy’s stomach clenched anxiously. “Same. Don’t be reckless. I know that’s hard when Steve is around and setting a bad example…”

Bucky chuckled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. He was breathtakingly handsome when he smiled like that. “You’ve got the punk all figured out. Why everyone in this century thinks he’s an angel is beyond me.”

“It’s ‘cause I _am_ an angel, you jerk,” Steve said, stepping into the hut. Darcy was relieved to see that he didn’t look any worse for wear. The last thing they needed right now was for their small group to be further reduced.

“You find anything?” Bucky asked, all traces of mirth erased from his expression.

Steve was vibrating with barely-concealed excitement. “There’s definitely some sort of military base there. About a thousand metres square, only one level.”

“Probably a lot of floors underground,” Bucky mused.

Darcy grimaced. Getting trapped below ground level sounded risky. “Is it active?”

Steve nodded. “I saw two trucks coming and going through the main entrance in the hour I was watching. No idea what they’re transporting, but there are guards at the gates, and they’re well-armed. No additional outside security that I could see, bar a few CCTV cameras.”

“They’re not expecting visitors, then,” Bucky surmised, chewing on his lip.

“That’s good, right?”

Steve nodded. “I doubt that they’re expecting a visit from us, but it’s possible that Nat’s source has told Hydra that we have the file.”

“Oh,” Darcy deflated slightly.

Bucky draped his arm over her shoulder, giving her a confident smile. “We can handle them, doll.”

She tried to look convinced. “So what do you guys need me to do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, a month-long break between chapters isn't great, but at least it's better than 2 months! I promise that I will finish this fic. I reckon on about two more chapters, maybe three.
> 
> Thanks so much for the feedback. Every kudo/comment/bookmark makes me smile :)


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